Singapore’s Lion City Sailors FC and Cambodia’s PKR Svay Rieng FC created history after becoming the first clubs from their respective nations to reach an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) club competition final this week.
The Sailors navigated a tricky AFC Champions League Two semi-final tie, while Svay Rieng breezed through to the AFC Challenge League final with both summit clashes scheduled to be held in the month of May.
ASEAN United FC recaps a memorable week for the ASEAN Club Championship Shopee Cup™ duo.
Sailors get the job done in Sydney
Lion City Sailors travelled to A-League side Sydney FC for the second leg of their AFC Champions League Two semi-final, with the Singaporean side holding a 2-0 advantage gained from the first leg.
The Sailors’ five-man backline, featuring Socceroo Bailey Wright, absorbed pressure for the majority of the match at the Sydney Football Stadium with goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud producing some key saves for his side.
Despite Joe Lolley’s 85th-minute goal giving Sydney a 1-0 lead on the night, it was too little too late for the home side as the Sailors held on to go through 2-1 on aggregate.
In doing so, the Sailors surpassed Home United and Geylang International with both having reached the semi-finals of the AFC Cup in 2004. Their opponents in the final will be UAE’s Sharjah FC with the title clash to take place on May 18.
Svay Rieng takes Cambodian football to new heights
PKR Svay Rieng FC were aiming to create history of their own in the AFC Challenge League, where they were up against Indonesia’s Madura United in the semi-final second leg at the Gelora Joko Samudro Stadium in Gresik.
After a comfortable 3-0 first leg victory in Phnom Penh a week ago, Svay Rieng travelled to Indonesia with a healthy lead to defend but without the services of their key forward Pablo who was out with injury.
However, instead of sitting back Pep Munoz’s side played their usual attacking football with Bounphachan Bounkong putting the ball on a plate for Gabriel Silva to open the scoring as early as the fifth minute. The roles were reversed in the 28th minute as this time the Laotian star got on the scoresheet.
Min Ratanak’s second half strike gave Svay Rieng a 3-1 lead and despite Madura battling back to level the scores at 3-3 the Cambodians comfortably progressed 6-3 on aggregate to create history for their nation and will now eye the ultimate prize when they come up against Turkmenistan’s Arkadag in the final on May 10.
Photos: PKR Svay Rieng FC & Lion City Sailors FC
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