Matchday Five of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) club competitions concluded on Thursday, November 28 with three ASEAN Club Championship Shopee Cup™ clubs flying the flag on the continental stage.
Filipino champions Kaya FC-Iloilo and Singapore’s Lion City Sailors FC were in action in the AFC Champions League Two, while Thai champions Buriram United took to the pitch in the AFC Champions League Elite.
ASEAN United FC recaps the latest round of fixtures.
Kaya record famous draw against Sanfrecce
Kaya FC-Iloilo’s hopes of progressing from Group E of the AFC Champions League Two 2024/25 are all but over, however they did fight right till the end to register a 1-1 draw at home to Sanfrecce Hiroshima on Thursday.
Japanese forward Shuto Komaki gave Kaya the lead in the 18th minute as the Filipinos were able to hold J.League title-chasing Sanfrecce for a significant period until 18-year-old Aren Inoue came up with the equaliser in the 68th minute.
Kaya defended resolutely throughout the match with the goal being Sanfrecce’s only shot on target as Kaya became the first club this season to take points off Sanfrecce in ACL Two with the three-time J.League champions set to go through as Group E winners while Kaya lie in third spot with four points from five matches.
Sailors let two-goal lead slip again; Buriram suffer back-to-back defeats
Lion City Sailors, on the other hand, had another miserable day in the office as for the second consecutive ACL Two match they surrendered a two-goal advantage to suffer defeat in Group F against China PR’s Zhejiang FC.
Goals from Toni Datkovic and Song Ui-young had the Sailors in the driver’s seat after 62 minutes only for the Chinese Super League side to roar back through goals from substitutes Franko Andrijasevic, Sun Zheng’ao and Wang Yudong with Ivorian Jean Evrard Kouassi also getting on the scoresheet as Zhejiang won 4-2 in Hangzhou.
Despite another heartbreaking loss, the Sailors still remarkably remain in control of their destiny, holding on to second place with seven points as they saw Thailand’s Port FC and Indonesia’s Persib Bandung split the points in a 2-2 draw in the late-night kickoff. This means a win for the Singaporeans at Jalan Besar Stadium on the final matchday against Port will earn them knockout stage qualification.
Elsewhere, Buriram United had made a strong start to life in the ACL Elite with seven points from their first three matches but have since suffered consecutive defeats against Japanese opposition, with Tuesday’s 3-0 loss at home to Kawasaki Frontale dropping them down to the ninth spot.
Two of the three Kawasaki goals came deep into second-half stoppage time in an extremely tight East Zone of the ACL Elite where just two points separate Kawasaki in fourth with Buriram in ninth. There remains one more continental matchday to come before the competitions take a break until February.
Photo: Kaya FC
Share now
