BURIRAM, Thailand, April 9 (Xinhua) -- French-born Congolese forward Cedric Bakambu scored a hattrick to help Beijing Guoan beat Thai League champions Buriram United 3-1 in Group G of the 2019 AFC Champions League (ACL) in northeastern Thailand's Buriram on Tuesday.
In the Thunder Castle stadium, Beijing took just two minutes to open the scoring at the Thai League champions' home when Li Le whipped a dangerous ball into the six-yard box, paving the way for Cedric Bakambu to get in ahead of Pansa Hemviboon and guide a shot past Siwarak Tedsungnoen.
Bakambu struck again a minute before the half-hour mark as he latched onto Renato Augusto's inch-perfect left-wing delivery to sweep a first-time effort into the back of the net.
Buriram were lacklustre in the first period of the game, and paid the price for some poor defending as Bakambu bagged two goals before the break, and one soon after to seal a memorable hat-trick in the 54th minute.
Buriram later decided to throw on young Suphanat Mueanta and the 16-year-old added some spark to the Thunder Castles' attack, and managed to find a consolation goal.
The first victory of Guoan in this year's ACL has brought the team four points, pushing the Chinese CFA Cup champions closer to the group survival spots.
Guoan earlier made a draw with Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds while Buriram beat South Korea's Jeonbuk Motors and lost 3-0 at Urawa. In the other Group G game at the same evening, leaders Urawa won 1-0 at Jeonbuk, sitting top in the group with six points.
Roger Schmidt, the coach of Beijing Guoan, was pleased at his players' performances. He said Bakambu's hattrick perfectly remedied his goalless sheet in last game, which brought the team and himself much confidence.
Touching on Suphanat, Thailand's youngest ever goalscorer in the history of the AFC, Schmidt congratulated him on his stunning performance. "I appreciate Buriram's coach, who is brave enough to put such a young player in such an important game. I believe it would not be Suphanat's only shot in his career."
