A-League club Newcastle Jets have held J-League outfit Nagoya Grampus to a 1-1 draw in Japan. In the Asian Champions League third round match of the initial group stage, the Jets began well and went ahead early thanks to an opportunist goal from youngster Tarek Elrich.

A 9th minute strike from Marko Jesic was kept out by Nagoya keeper Seigo Narazaki but Elrich was on hand to tuck it away from close range.

The visitors did the majority of the attacking as Nagoya found it hard to produce anything of note in the attacking third.

That however changed in the 64th minute when Japan international Keiji Tamada found himself standing over a free-kick 20 yards from goal.

Tamada, who came on as a substitute just after the re-start, whipped it over the wall and into the back of the net, beating ACL debutant Ben Kennedy in goals for the Jets.

The point for each team keeps the race for progression to the next round wide open with Nagoya topping the table on five points from three games whilst Newcastle are third on four points, equal with Beijing Guoan and just one clear of Ulsan Hyundai.