Soccer-Shenhua bounce back to claim Chinese FA Cup

Shanghai Shenhua secured their return to the Asian Champions League on Friday as Choi Kang-hee's side sealed a 3-1 aggregate win over Shandong Luneng in the final of the Chinese FA Cup. Shenhua joins Chinese Super League champions Guangzhou Evergrande in qualifying automatically for the group phase of next year's continental club championship after overturning a first-leg deficit and triumphing 3-0 in the second leg.

Chinese Super League runners-up Beijing Groan and Shanghai SIPG, who finished third, will play in the tournament's playoffs in late January. Shenhua went into the game at Hongkou Stadium trailing to a Graziano Pelle penalty from the first leg last month. It took until the hour mark before Shanghai leveled the scores on aggregate when South Korea striker Kim Shin-Wook finished from close range.

Stephan El Shaarawy then latched onto Giovanni Moreno's through ball before outpacing the Shandong defense and firing into the bottom corner to claim the second nine minutes from time. Alexander N'Doumbou put the result beyond doubt two minutes later when he smashed his shot into the top corner to give Shenhua a second CFA Cup win in three seasons and take them back into the Asian Champions League after failing to qualify for the 2019 edition.