Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: It was another busy week of AFC Cup action that has seen a further 13 teams depart to leave seven sides to battle it out for continental glory. On the back of the fixtures, here's what some of those involved had to say.
We knew a first-half lead would really help us because we didn't go there just to defend, we went there to put up a fight. It was quite intimidating at the start, but once we settled in we proved that even as a young team we could cope well and hold them back.
Home United coach Aidil Sharin admits that the huge crowd at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium made the task of overcoming Persija Jakarta even more difficult after his side claimed an excellent 3-1 victory to progress to a second successive AFC Cup ASEAN Zonal final.
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Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: The-AFC.com has announced that Al Ahed's Mohammad Kdouh is the winner of the Goal of the Week presented by Allianz for this week's AFC Cup games after a public vote on the AFC’s official website.
Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Beirut: Air Force Club let slip a two-goal lead as Al Ahed staged a second half comeback to secure a 2-2 draw, but the draw was still enough for the reigning champions to advance to the West Asia Zonal Final with a 5-3 aggregate victory.
The Iraqi side are chasing an unprecedented hat-trick of titles after winning the last two AFC Cup titles, and they showed in a powerful display why they are so difficult to beat.
Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Jakarta: Home United capitalised on a series of defensive blunders from Persija Jakarta to seal a historic 3-1 win and with it a place in the 2018 AFC Cup ASEAN Zonal Final.
The visitors looked the more assured side all night and never looked like surrendering the 3-2 advantage they held from the first leg, eventually running out 6-3 winners on aggregate.
Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Yangon: Ceres Negros of the Philippines made it through to the AFC Cup ASEAN Zonal final for the second year in a row on Wednesday, progressing 6-5 on aggregate despite falling to a 3-2 loss to Myanmar’s Yangon United in their semi-final second leg.
The first leg finished 4-2 to Ceres, but anyone at Thuwanna Youth Training Centre Stadium who thought the outcome was a foregone conclusion was forced to reassess in just the second minute, as Yangon burst out of the traps and took the lead through a wonderful Kosuke Uchida strike.
Ceres reacted well to that early blow and restored parity and their two-goal aggregate advantage just six minutes later, as Manuel Ott robbed Aung Yan Lin deep in the Yangon half, fed Stephan Schrock, and then tucked home a return pass from Schrock after the German-Filipino had powered past the challenges of Kyaw Khant Min and Kekere Moukailou.
Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Macau: A Carlos Leonel hat-trick secured Benfica Macau second place in 2018 AFC Cup Group I on Wednesday, sealing a 3-0 win over DPR Korea’s Hwaepul SC.
The first half at MUST Stadium was a cagey affair of few chances, with Gilchrist Nguema seemingly missing the best of them in the 40th minute when he sent a free header off target after an Edgar Teixeira free kick.
The Gabonese centre-back atoned just two minutes later though, crossing superbly when finding himself in an advanced position on the right wing and leaving Leonel with the simplest of headers to open the scoring.
The closest Hwaepul came to equalising was in the 55th minute when Kim Kwang-jin cut neatly inside the Benfica penalty area, but he was closed down sharply by goalkeeper Batista before he could get a shot off.
Leonel made the visitors pay for that with another header eight minutes later, this time nodding home after leaping highest to meet a Teixeira corner, before wrapping up the scoring from the penalty spot in the 82nd minute.
That left Benfica on 12 points from their maiden AFC Cup campaign, six behind runaway group winners 4.25 SC of DPR Korea, while Hwaepul came third on six points and Chinese Taipei’s Hang Yuen FC finished bottom and pointless.
Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Jakarta: The 2018 AFC Cup ASEAN Zonal Semi-final second leg match between Indonesia's Persija Jakarta and Home United of Singapore on Tuesday set a new match attendance record of 62,198 fans.
Persija, however, were unable to overcome their visitors, losing 6-3 on aggregate but The Kemayoran Tigers fans exited this year’s competition boasting an incredible record in AFC Cup history.
The Gelora Bung Karno stadium first made headlines when Persija welcomed Tampines Rovers in their Group H campaign in February, attracting a crowd of 49,056, before hosting Malaysia’s Johor Darul Ta’zim on Matchday Five which broke previous AFC Cup records with an attendance of 60,157.