Marcello Lippi's Guangzhou Evergrande swept aside Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds 3-0 in an AFC Champions League opener in Guangzhou's Tianhe Stadium on Tuesday.

Brazilian forward Muriqui scored one and set up another for Lucas Barrios as the Chinese double holders underlined their status as one of the favourites for the title by seeing off the 2007 champions.

"I'm happy that we won and very satisfied with the performance of my team," said Guangzhou's World Cup winning Italian coach Marcello Lippi. "Our opponent's players have good skills, and are very good at controlling match zonally. The entire match was very smooth, so I'm happy to have this result. We have prepared for it for so long.

Lucas Barrios's 16th-minute helped get the hosts off to the best possible start and Muriqui weighed in with a second goal after half-time. With seconds remaining, Keita Suzuki put the ball into his own net to make it an emphatic start for Guangzhou.

Fellow Chinese team Jiangsu Sainty had a rude introduction to the competition when they were hammered 5-1 in their debut outing by K-League champions FC Seoul, who have their own claims on the Asian title.