Binan: Kaya FC-Iloilo of the Philippines wrapped up their ASEAN Club Championship Shopee Cup™ campaign with a 2-0 victory against Singapore’s Lion City Sailors FC in their final group match on Thursday.
Lucas del Rosario opened the scoring for Kaya in the 65th minute before Jesus Melizza’s penalty six minutes later secured the 2-0 victory for Yu Hoshide’s side, who registered their first points after four straight defeats.
Singapore Premier League side Sailors also head out after finishing the inaugural Shopee Cup second-from-bottom in Group B -- one point ahead of Kaya -- with one win, one draw and three defeats from their five outings.
Under the pouring rain at Binan Football Stadium, it took 21 minutes to see the game’s first shot on target as Sailors goalkeeper Zharfan Rohaizad was forced into a save at his near post by Kaya’s Japanese attacker Shuto Komaki.
The Philippines Football League side continued to probe for an opener with Simone Rota heading wide a Melliza corner in the 25th minute while Sailors were restricted to shots from distance – Bart Ramselaar firing one such effort wide in the 34th minute.
Marko Perovic’s visitors produced their best chance of the half in stoppage time as Christopher van Huizen cut the ball back for Maxime Lestienne, whose first-time effort needed an acrobatic save from Spanish 'keeper Walid Birrou as the two teams went into the break with the score still goalless.
Perovic made a double substitution at the half-time interval with Bailey Wright and Song Ui-Young brought on to turn things around in place of Toni Datkovic and Hami Syahin.
Lestienne almost pulled them ahead in the 58th minute but planted his header wide of goal from a Ramselaar cross but it was the home side who finally found the breakthrough in the 65th minute through Del Rosario.
Komaki latched onto a long ball forward from the Kaya defence and raced into the box before testing Zharfan, who could only parry the effort onto the path of Del Rosario for the opener.
Sailors’ troubles were compounded a couple of minutes later when Hariss Harun shoved Melliza to the floor inside the box and the referee pointed to the spot.
Melliza himself stepped up to take the penalty and sent Zharfan the wrong way to register his second goal of the Shopee Cup and help his side finish their campaign on a positive note.
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