Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Yangon: A Bienvenido Maranon penalty helped Ceres-Negros continue their unbeaten start to the 2018 AFC Cup with a 1-0 win over Shan United on Wednesday.
The visitors started the brighter of the two teams at Thuwunna Stadium as they almost effortlessly passed the ball around, and were gifted the chance to open the scoring when Win Hein Phyo handled the ball in the box, with Spanish striker Maranon making no mistake from the resulting spot-kick to give the visitors the lead.
Risto Vidakovic’s side continued to dominate as the home side struggled to retain possession and create any meaningful attacks.
Manuel Ott should’ve doubled the lead on the hour mark when Maranon dinked a left-footed cross into the path of an on-rushing Ott, but the midfielder pulled his shot wide.
Ceres wasted another glorious chance to double their lead 20 minutes later when Stephan Schrock slid the ball across the box for OJ Porteria, but with an open net at his mercy the substitute could only hit his shot into the post, with his follow-up effort well saved by Phone Thitsar Min.
But the solitary goal was enough for Ceres to take all three points and retain their spot atop Group F.