Lion City Sailors FC coach Aleksandar Ranković was left frustrated by his side’s performance despite seeing his Singapore Premier League champions pick up their first win in the 2025/26 ASEAN Club Championship Shopee Cup™ against Shan United FC on Wednesday.
Lennart Thy scored twice, including his side’s crucial third, in the 3-2 victory over the side from Myanmar at Jalan Besar Stadium to keep Ranković’s squad in contention for a place in the knockout rounds with two matches remaining in Group B.
“Honestly, I’ll accept the result,” said the Serbian coach. “It was not a beautiful game. If I look back over the last two and a half years, in terms of quality, this was maybe one of the least enjoyable games to watch.
“That wasn’t only on us or on them. There were a lot of VAR moments and everything that comes with it. All the ingredients were there for an ugly match, but I’m happy that we won.”
Lion City were pegged back twice by their visitors, with Thy’s 23rd minute opener cancelled out through Matheus Souza’s penalty five minutes later while Maxime Lestienne’s second in first half stoppage time was matched by Ryuji Hirota in the 66th minute.
However, Thy’s clever improvised finish from close range two minutes later secured the points for Lion City as the home side refused to back down in the quest for victory.
“That’s the character we have,” Ranković said of his team’s determination to claim the win. “But at the same time, my players should ask and demand a little bit more from themselves.
“We should have finished this game much earlier and scored at least one or two more goals. For the fans it may have been interesting to watch, but I didn’t really enjoy watching this game. Still, the result is what matters.
“We are still in the game. We have two matches to go, one away and one at home. It’s not going to be easy, especially with another away match coming up.”
The loss was Shan United’s third in a row in the competition and leaves the side from Myanmar bottom of the standings with limited hope of securing a berth in May’s semi-finals.
“Of course, it is disappointing,” coach U Han Win Aung said of the result. “Our objective in this competition is always to try to win matches. The players gave their effort, but in the end we lost, so we cannot be satisfied with the result.
“We are trying to improve step by step and to implement our ideas more systematically with the team. The players continue to work hard and we are focused on developing the way we play.
“Playing against strong teams in this competition gives us important experience. We face quality players and very organised teams, and there is a lot we can learn from that.
“These matches help us understand where we need to improve, and we can use these lessons to focus on the development of our team moving forward.”
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