Former Sydney FC man Santalab, who recently returned from a long-term ankle injury, came off the bench as a 77th-minute substitute before winning and converting a penalty on 84 minutes with his side trailing 2-0.

Earlier, Griffiths had seen a long-range effort cannon into the crossbar, before Wang Changqing opened the scoring on 52 minutes.

Zhou Ting doubled Beijing's lead on 58 minutes before the Australian striker, who is never far away from controversy, went down on 69 minutes after contact with Chengdu's Li Hongyang.

Griffiths got off the deck with a bloodied mouth after Li Hongyang backed into him with a raised elbow, triggering a melee between the two sides.

The Chengdu man would end up sent off for his elbow, while Griffiths ended up being replaced on 72 minutes with the blood flowing.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Joshua Kennedy scored a late goal to rescue a point for Nagoya Grampus as they drew 2-2 with Gamba Osaka in a huge clash in Japan's J.League.

In Japan's J2.League, Socceroo Mark Milligan put in a full shift at the back as promotion hopefuls JEF United were thumped 4-0 by Consadole Sapporo.