The South Korean side found themselves behind in the 11th minute as Yoichiro Kakitani opened the scoring for the visitors on Tuesday, and the hosts had to wait until just after the hour to earn a point.
Substitute Bae Chun-Suk was their saviour as he met a ball from Ko Mu-Yeol five minutes after coming on, the forward firing past Kim Jin-Hyeon
Beaten 2013 finalist Seoul began their campaign with a comfortable 2-0 win over Central Coast Mariners as the Australian side finished the game with 10-men after Marcel Seip's late red card.
Al Jazira had the perfect start to Group A with a 3-2 win over Qatar's Al Rayyan in Abu Dhabi, with Felipe Caicedo and Abdelaziz Barrada putting them two goals ahead in the opening 10 minutes.
Ahmed Al Ghilani added a third after Luis Gonzalez had pulled one back for the visitors, with Kalu Uche netting a second for the away side in stoppage time.
