Social media abuzz in wake of Evergrande exit

After holders Guangzhou Evergrande's shock elimination at the quarterfinal stage of the AFC Champions League, football websites and social media were abuzz with reaction on Thursday.

Despite beating fledgling Australian outfit Western Sydney Wanderers 2-1 in Wednesday's second leg in Guangzhou, to draw 2-2 on aggregate, Evergrande succumbed on the away goals rule, leaving the official FIFA website to label the defeat a "seismic shock" while NewsAsia said Wanderers had overcome "insurmountable" odds to knock out the holders.

An amazing 60 million hits were recorded in the Sina Weibo discussion "Guangzhou Evergrande" as of Thursday morning and hot topics on the website, that broadcast the game live, included "AFC Evergrande", "AFC Champions League" and "Evergrande vs Western Sydney" receiving a total 229,016 hits.

New topics such as "Goodbye Evergrande" and "Good luck Evergrande" that lamented the Guangzhou club's failure attracted more people, with 134,087 users recorded.

Social media comments included, from Sina sports commentator Zhan Jun: "(Coach Marcello) Lippi failed to spring surprises and changes this year with the frontline weakened and not as smooth as last season. Evergrande has been relying too much on foreign players, but the combination of Italians (Alessandro) Diamanti and (Alberto) Gilardino has so far failed to have the same impact as Argentine Diego Conca and Brazilian Muriqui, who both left the club after leading them to last year's Champions League title".

CCTV sports reporter, Liu Siyuan, said: "It's not unexpected to see Evergrande stopped on their way to defend the title, as their performances this season have already revealed problems. They are still the same powerful and big-spending team as last year, but they are no longer as aggressive and confident".

Freelance sports reporter, Dong Lu, said: "Evergrande tried so hard but still lost. Misfortune should be blamed, but a decline of overall strength is the main reason. Lippi's positioning of Italian forward Gilardino, Brazilian forward Elkeson and midfielder Yu Hanchao was questionable, although his attempt to change formation worked for some time."