Brazilian superstar Anderson Talisca was a menace throughout, scoring twice as Victory completely failed to deal with his powerful dribbling and divine left foot.

Lawrence Thomas failed to recover in time from the knee injury that kept him out of the Big Blue, so understudy Matt Acton continued between the sticks, with Matt Sutton as the backup on the bench.

Leigh Broxham deputised for the injured Terry Antonis in midfield, with Corey Brown filling the left back role. Partially due to having to take an extra goalkeeper, Victory fielded only five out of a possible seven substitutes. Fringe players Jai Ingham, Rahmat Akbari, and Birkan Kirdan were all left back home in Melbourne.

In contrast to their Chinese Super League lineups, in which they’ve committed to playing only two of their foreign stars, Guangzhou started a full complement of overseas talent, with Talisca and Paulinho supplemented by former Everton youngster Tyias Browning and Korean defender Park Ji-Soo.

National team mainstay Gao Lin wore the captain’s armband, with several other Chinese internationals dotted throughout the squad, overseen by manager Fabio Cannavaro, who has recently taken on the China job as well.

BEST

Anderson Talisca

Best on ground by a country mile, the former Benfica and Besiktas attacker showed why he’s among the finest imports currently gracing Asia with an imperious individual display.

Talisca has acquired the nickname “Yaya” in reference to Ivorian legend Yaya Toure, but his game more resembles that of countryman Rivaldo. The 6’3’’ forward eats up the ground in front of him with his long, loping strides, has the strength to hold of any defender at pace, and has a penchant for the spectacular, particularly if given room on his favoured left side.

Talisca set the tone in just the third minute, smashing a magnificently-struck free kick against the apex of goal, with Acton nowhere near it. Just four minutes later, he orchestrated the breakthrough. Picking out Gao Lin on the left flank with a stunning cross-field ball, Talisca began his run from deep, evading the attentions of Broxham and Brown to hang in the air and head home from Gao’s cross.

Talisca has his second inside ten minutes – and the sequel was even better than the original. Sizing up Corey Brown, Talisca cut inside onto his left foot and curled a jaw-dropping strike into the top left corner, leaving Acton with no chance.

He couldn’t quite complete his hattrick but continued to torment the Victory backline before he was substituted in the 80th minute.

Paulinho

Fresh from a World Cup campaign with Brazil and a La Liga title with Barcelona, Paulinho’s pedigree is obvious – and so is the reason Guangzhou have spent such an exorbitant sum of money to get him to return to the CSL.

The all-action midfielder was everywhere on Wednesday night, laying tackles, intercepting passes, and making penetrating runs from deep in behind the Victory defence, constantly stretching the visitors’ backline.

Paulinho raced away on the counter to tee up Guangzhou’s third before the break, and never gave Keisuke Honda the time and space to create anything significant on the other end.

Paulinho is a phenomenon – but no less than what you would expect of someone earning in excess of $440,000 per week!

Evergrande’s fans

In stark contrast to many countries across Asia, the ACL is well-respected in China, with attendances often exceeding those for regular league games. 

Tonight was no exception, with local fans filling out the majority of the 54,000-capacity Tianhe Stadium, and providing plenty of colour and noise to boot.

Perhaps Australia could learn a thing or two?

WORST

Corey Brown

The left-back position is one Melbourne Victory never expend much of the salary cap on – just ask Daniel Georgievski.

Even so, Corey Brown has been consistently subpar all season long – and this latest disastrous week may well be the tipping point. Following he and Josh Hope’s ‘Keystone Kops’ slapstick routine on the left flank in the leadup to Sydney’s winner on the weekend, Brown was forced to front up mano-e-mano against one of the finest talents in Asia - Anderson Talisca.

Surprising absolutely no-one, Brown made an absolute hash of it, ball-watching for the opening goal and leaving Talisca free to cut onto his favoured left side for the second.

Brown continually put his team under pressure with poor passing choices, and overcommitted centrally when defending the counter attack that led to the third.

Bruce Djite singled him out at halftime, saying Talisca was making him look like a semi-pro footballer. You could forgive some NPL players for being offended by the comparison.

Leigh Broxham

Usually Victory’s Mr Reliable, Broxham had himself an absolute shocker at both ends of the field. More often used in the backline these days, Broxham looked more than a little uncomfortable in midfield, giving away an early free kick from which Talisca struck the post, failing to track the Brazilian’s run for the opener, and generally looking unsure of his positioning off the ball.

His nightmare evening was compounded in the second half when Gao Lin’s effort rocketed back off Matt Acton, into Broxham’s side, and into the vacant net for an unfortunate own goal.

There was still time for Broxham to ignore the run of substitute Kenny Athiu, who would’ve been clean through, and instead shoot tamely at goal, butchering Victory’s clearest opening of the whole game. A rare off night.

Kevin Muscat

How long will it take Kevin Muscat to learn that he simply cannot play the same style in Asia as he does in the A-League? This is his fourth (failed) continental campaign, and the lesson doesn’t seem to have sunk in yet.

Victory’s lack of width in their diamond formation left Brown and Storm Roux isolated against their wingers, and although Muscat changed to a 4-5-1 at halftime, the damage was already done.

Although injuries to Antonis, Raul Baena and Lawrence Thomas restricted his options considerably, the space Victory allowed Talisca throughout suggested either an abysmal failure of execution, or that they didn’t have a plan to deal with him in the first place.

Muscat also opted to field just 5 players on a 7-man bench, leaving the likes of Rahmat Akbari and Jai Ingham back home in Melbourne. Perhaps he didn’t have faith in his team to begin with.