Australian midfielder Erik Paartalu’s effort in the 16th minute went unmatched by the visitors to the Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium, who simply could not get past Alexandre Guimaraes’ determined side who sit just one point off the relegation zone.
The only relief for Evergrande was that the teams directly below them could not take advantage of the rare defeat as Shandong Luneng and Beijing Guoan fell to Shanghai Shenxin and Changchun Yatai respectively.
The loss for Beijing, which was their first in five, saw the capital club robbed of the points by Changchun’s Isac who fired home a brace to seal a 2-0 scoreline.
But Shandong’s loss was slightly more marginal as a 55th-minute effort from Jiawei Yang served to separate the teams as Radomir Antic saw his side throw away a three-match winning streak.
Gong Lei’s men are pushing for an AFC Champions League place and they are just a little closer after their draw, which came courtesy of an early goal from defender Zhang Chenglin and saw Dalian midfielder Seydou Keita dismissed.
Elsewhere during the weekend’s action, Shanghai Shenhua continued their impressive run, which has now seen them win three in a row, against Wuhan Zall on Saturday.
