Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur City kicked off their maiden ASEAN Club Championship Shopee Cup™ in winning fashion with a 1-0 victory over Filipino champions Kaya FC-Iloilo in their Group B opener on Thursday.
The hosts made a fast start to proceedings with both Ryan Lambert and Paulo Josue seeing efforts on goal within the opening 10 minutes, before Akito Saito responded for the hosts with a header wide.
However it was the Malaysians who went in front with the very next attack on 12 minutes.
Josue found himself clear on the left side and his low cross into the area found Haqimi Azim stealing in unmarked at the back post to turn home despite the best efforts of Patrick Deyto who failed to prevent the ball crossing the line.
The Kaya goalkeeper was called into action soon after to deny Brendan Gan and then Josue before the half-hour mark.
But it was the visitors who had the final opportunity of the half as Marwin Angeles drew a smart save from Azri Ghani, flinging himself low to his right to deny the Philippines midfielder.
Much as they had been in the first half, it was Kuala Lumpur City who were the more aggressive after the restart and Haqimi attempted to double his tally in the 53rd minute but was denied by Deyto.
Just after the hour mark Gan was again kept out by Deyto before Josue also saw his attempt saved.
Deyto continued to act as a human shield to keep the deficit at a single goal with yet another impressive stop, this time athletically flying to his right to keep out Sharvin Selvakumaran with 15 minutes remaining.
In the final minutes, on two occasions the home fans thought their team were set to double the advantage when first Sharvin advanced through free on goal and the second time when the ball finally found its way past Deyto, but each time the offside flag was raised.
Kaya’s night looked to end with a bitter twist when vice-captain Fitch Arboleda was in danger of receiving a red card after he collided with his opponent, but a VAR intervention saw the midfielder’s infringement punished by a yellow card.
Kuala Lumpur City will next host Borneo FC Samarinda on September 26, while Kaya are hosted by Thailand’s Buriram United on the same night.
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