China Wrap: Beijing Guoan go top, Evergrande lose

Zhang Xizhe opened the scoring with a penalty five minutes before the break, and Pablo Batalla doubled the advantage eight minutes after the interval to continue his record of finding the net in every league match this season.

Gregorio Manzano's men have now won all three of their opening CSL fixtures and hold a two-point lead at the top of the table.

The only other side with a 100 per cent record entering the third round of action were reigning champions Guangzhou Evergrande, who fell to a surprise 3-1 home defeat at the hands of Changchun Yatai.

Goals from Fatos Beqiraj and Matias Iglesias put the visitors two up prior to half-time and Eninho added a third five minutes after the break.

Elkeson did respond from the penalty spot eight minutes later, but the hosts had left themselves too much to do as Yatai claimed their first win of the season.

Shanghai SIPG and Guizhou Renhe both took advantage of that result to move above Evergrande, the pair recording narrow away wins to climb into the top three.

Tobias Hysen and Wu Lei both found the net in SIPG's 2-1 win at Hangzhou, who saw Wang Lin sent off a minute from time in their first defeat of the campaign.

Renhe matched that result away at Liaoning Whowin, recovering from the setback of Zhao Junzhe's 16th-minute opener to equalise through Yu Hai before Krzysztof Maczynski won it 10 minutes from the end.

At the wrong end of the table, Shanghai Shenxin and Harbin Yiteng's miserable starts to the season continued.

Shenxin took a 14th-minute lead against Guangzhou R&F thanks to Kieza's penalty, but the visitors roared back with Abderrazak Hamdallah's hat-trick sealing a 3-1 success.

Yiteng also took an early lead in their game at Jiangsu Sainty through Adam Hughes, but goals from Dejan Damjanovic and Deng Zhuoxiang saw the hosts come back to win 2-1 and leave Yiteng locked with Shenxin at the foot of the table without a point to their name.

Elsewhere, Dalian Aerbin came from two down at Henan Jianye to claim a 2-2 draw, and Carmelo Valencia scored a last-minute equaliser to earn a point for Tianjin Teda in a 1-1 draw with Shandong Luneng.