Singapore: Lion City Sailors FC breathed new life into their ASEAN Club Championship Shopee Cup™ campaign following a 2-0 victory over Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur City FC in Group B on Thursday.
The Singaporean side opened the scoring in the Matchday Three clash at Jalan Besar Stadium in the 26th minute through captain Bailey Wright with their fmaiden goal in the tournament.
Lion City then doubled their advantage through Maxime Lestienne midway through the second half as the home team picked up their first points in the Shopee Cup while also ending KL City’s 100% record.
The Lion City starting line-up featured four players that helped Singapore reach the semi-finals of the recent ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup™, among them Shawal Anuar who netted four times in the competition.
And it was Shawal who caused the first problem for the opposition defence when he sprung the offside trap in the second minute to latch on to a through ball from Toni Datkovic down the left before his low cross was miscued narrowly wide by KL City defender Adrijan Rudovic.
The hosts dominated possession in the opening stages and took a deserved lead in the 26th minute when Song Ui-young’s corner from the left was headed home by skipper Wright at the back post.
It was one-way traffic as the Sailors continued to push forward, with Bart Ramselaar’s effort from distance 10 minutes before the interval deflecting off Zhafri Yahya and going over the bar for a corner.
Aleksandar Rankovic’s side continued in the ascendancy after the restart and were inches away from adding a second in the 64th minute when Hami Syahin found Lestienne in acres of space and Belgian’s curling, dipping shot from distance flew over goalkeeper Azri Ghani only to rebound back off the crossbar.
But Lestienne did not have to wait long for another sight on goal and this time there was no help from the woodwork for KL City.
The playmaker picked the ball up 40 yards from goal, played a lovely give-and-go with Ramselaar who slipped the ball into the left side of the penalty area for the onrushing Lestienne to expertly dink over the outrushing Azri.
But KL City showed they were not out of it when they too rattled the crossbar with a little over five minutes remaining as Kamal Azizi let fly from 30 yards out with a piledriver that flew past Izwan Mahbud but bounced back off the woodwork as the game ended 2-0.
Lion City will next host Thai powerhouse Buriram United in a crunch clash on 23 January while KL City will take on Vietnam’s Công An Hà Nôi FC in the Malaysian capital on the same day.
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