Female coach on losing side in Asian Champions League

After the 7-0 rout mercifully ended, Luiz Felipe Scolari walked over and shook hands with counterpart Chan Yuen-ting, then gave her a warm, almost fatherly pat on the head.

It was a tough night for the 28-year-old Chan, coach of Hong Kong club Eastern SC, but Wednesday's Asian Champions League match was historic nonetheless as she became the first woman to lead a professional men's soccer team in a continental competition.

Chan was making her debut in the elite Asian club tournament with the Hong Kong champions while Scolari, who led Brazil to the 2002 World Cup title, took over at Chinese powerhouse Guangzhou Evergrande in 2015 and led them to the Asian Champions League title that same year.

Eastern got into trouble early on Wednesday, and then things got worse.

Fullback Wong Tsz-ho was sent off for handball as he defended on the line in the third minute and Wong Chi-chung was given a red card in the 34th, forcing Eastern to play most of the Group G match with only nine men.

Wang Shangyan and Liao Lisheng scored two goals each for the two-time champions, while Ricardo Goulart, Alan and Paulinho added the others.

"The two red cards in the first half completely ruined our plan," Chan was quoted as saying by Chinese news agency, Xinhua. "Many of our players are too young, we made many mistakes, I hope we can learn from these mistakes in our next matches."

Scolari said took full toll of its numeric and experience advantage.

"It was not a normal match, because our opponents were two men down in the first half," he said. "We took advantage of that."

In South Korea, former Chelsea midfielder Ramires scored a late goal to give Chinese club Jiangsu Suning a 1-0 win at Jeju United, while Japanese team Kawasaki Frontale drew 1-1 with Suwon Bluewings.

Also Wednesday, Gamba Osaka defeated Adelaide United 3-0 to end a poor week for Australian clubs in the competition.

In three matches played in Australia this week, the home teams failed to score a goal.