Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur City FC posted a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Indonesia’s Borneo FC Samarinda in their second Group B outing in the ASEAN Club Championship Shopee Cup™ on Thursday.
Brendan Gan scored the only goal of the game in the 77th minute at the Stadium Bola Sepak Kuala Lumpur on Matchday Two as Miroslav Kuljanac’s side made it two wins out of two in the Shopee Cup, having beaten Kaya FC-Iloilo by the same score in their opener.
It was a cagey start to the proceedings with Kuala Lumpur captain Paulo Josue seeing a yellow card for a reckless challenge on Ronaldo Rodrigues with only seven minutes played.
Not much later, Borneo centre-back Ronaldo himself escaped a red card for denying Jovan Motika an obvious goal-scoring opportunity in the 27th minute after the VAR ruled the attacker offside in the build-up.
The closest Borneo went to scoring in the first half was in the 24th minute when skipper Stefano Lilipaly’s low drive from inside the box was blocked by Brendan Gan as the Indonesians were forced to an early change after Ronaldo’s shift came to a premature end following the early tussle with Josue.
The two teams went into the break with the game scoreless, but Pieter Huistra’s Borneo were close to breaking the deadlock in the 57th minute when Leo Gaucho’s attempt from close range after a Lilipaly corner was directed straight at Kuala Lumpur goalkeeper Azri Ghani - their first shot on target.
Borneo custodian Nadeo Argawinata was forced into making a save in the 70th minute as Kuala Lumpur substitute Sean Giannelli’s shot from outside the box bounced awkwardly in front of the goal.
It needed a moment of magic from Zhafri Yahya to finally open the scoring in the 77th minute as the substitute dribbled past two Borneo defenders to get into the box before cutting the ball back for Gan to fire home the winner.
Borneo barely threatened during the remainder of the game, except when Lilipaly's free-kick from 35 yards out almost wrong-footed Azri, but the keeper recovered in time to tip it behind for a corner kick in the 88th minute.
The Malaysian Super League side's will look to make it a hat-trick of wins when they go up against Singapore's Lion City Sailors FC on January 9. 2025 while Borneo travel to Buriram to take on Thai champions Buriram United on the same day.
Share now
