A familiar face has come back to haunt the Newcastle Jets in the Asian Champions League Elite, as former Central Coast Mariners star Marco Tulio inspired Kyoto Sanga to a thumping 5-2 come-from-behind win at Sanga Stadium.
A member of the Mariners side that won the 2023 title before being sold to Kyoto mid their treble-winning 2023-24 campaign, Tulio had a 75 per cent winning record in the F3 Derby, scoring two goals, and he rediscovered this form in five devastating, second-half minutes on Tuesday evening.
First, with his side trailing 2-1, the Brazilian curled a low free kick around two kneeling teammates – the ball perhaps taking a glancing touch off Alex Negueba – and tucked it inside the far post to equalise in the 56th minute.
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Then, four minutes later, he popped up to sweetly volley home a cross from Alex Negueba and claim the lead.
The Jets had been sitting pretty in Japan at 2-0 with just seconds remaining in the opening stanza after Patrick Wood converted penalties in the 13th and second minute of first-half stoppage time, only for Hisashi Tawiah to grab what proved a vital goal when he turned in a Takaaki Shichi corner.
And despite James Delianov producing a series of impressive saves, the Novocastrians continued to wilt under a second-half onslaught by the hosts, who made it 4-2 in the 67th minute through Rafael Elias and grabbed an 84th-minute cherry through Negueba.
Shichi was probably the most relieved onlooker as his side overran the game, having given away both of the Jets’ VAR-adjudged spot kicks.
Bottom of the Eastern region after losing their opening three games by a combined score of 15-4, the Jets will lick their wounds heading into an A-League Men visit from Wellington on Saturday, before Kevin Muscat’s Shanghai Port come to town for more Asian Champions League action.
Port suffered a surprise home defeat in the competition on Tuesday, losing 3-2 to previously pointless Vietnamese side Cong An Hanoi.
In the 16-club East region, from which the top eight join their West region equivalents in the last-16 round, there were also wins for Johor Darul Ta’zim of Malaysia and Japan’s Vissel Kobe.
