Argentine midfielder Dario Conca scored two goals in the first half for Guangzhou Evergrande, gifting the defending champions a winning start in Chinese Super League (CSL) on Sunday.

Evergrande, who had stunned Jeonju 5-1 in AFC Champions League four days ago, did not find its form in the first 30 minutes against Shanghai Shenxin who had lost all their three head-to-head away games from 2006. Shenxin's Antonio opened scoring first after a series of scrambles in the home team's box.

The surprising goal awoke the defending champions as Dario Conca equalized in the 30th minutes in the middle of the box after Brazilian Cleo's cross from left side of the box. It was only 10 minutes later until more than 40,000 home fans saw another beautiful curving effort from the Argentinian anchor, who once again showed great adroitness of his left foot from the left corner of the box.

The 29-year-old lost the chance to make a hat-trick in the 52th minute when he narrowly missed a free-kick almost in the same position when he scored in the first half.

"I am satisfied with our players' performance, Guangzhou Evergrande is a good team, they played two games in four days and they could win both, " said Shanghai's Coach Zhu Jiong.

"We've some injuries in our backs, so today's game had been tough for us. But the most important thing is we won, so I am satisfied with the result," said Guangzhou's coach Lee JangSoo.