Home United opened the scoring in the second minute when Shahril Ishak cut inside Novri Setiawan down the right and delivered a teasing cross which the unfortunate Maman Abdurrahman headed into his own net.

Then in the ninth minute Song Ui-young burst past Abdurrahman and found himself clear on goal after Vava Yagalo lost his footing, but the midfielder still had work to do and remained composed to slip the ball past goalkeeper Rizky Darmawan and into the bottom left corner.

Persija came back into the game as the half wore on and Yagalo headed just over from Ismed Sofyan’s corner from the right in the 27th minute.

The Indonesian side’s pressure soon paid off, though, as five minutes later Ramdhani Lestaluhu headed home Riko Simanjuntak’s corner from the left to throw the tie wide open.

 

Musa Al Taamari’s fifth goal of the campaign fired Al Jazeera in front inside 14 minutes. The winger broke free on the right flank to latch onto Abdullah Al Attar’s pass behind Al Faisaly defence. He then showed some excellent close control skills to move past the defender and apply a composed finish from a tight angle to beat goalkeeper Moataz Yaseen.

Al Jazeera were dealt a blow in the 26th minute when Syrian midfielder Mardik Mardikian was shown a straight red card for an elbow on Al Faisaly captain Ibrahim Al Zawahreh.

The visitors from the capital Amman capitalise on their one-man advantage and grabbed an equaliser three minutes before the half time break through Lukasz Gikiewicz. The Polish striker lost his marker inside the box and expertly took his header from Yousef Al Rawashdeh’s cross to net his fourth goal of the 2018 AFC Cup season.

Anas Bani Yaseen nearly caught Al Jazeera goalkeeper Ahmad Nawwas off-guard with a long-range strike four minutes from time, but the hosts’ custodian was alert and made the save.

The two teams lock horns again next week when Al Faisaly will have the advantage of an away goal as they fight for a place in the Zonal Final against the winner between Air Force Club and Al Ahed.

Ceres were on top from the start and Manny Ott came close in the seventh minute when he curled a free-kick just wide from the edge of the penalty area.

Stephan Schrock could have opened the scoring just minutes later but shot over after being played through by Maranon, before Sekou Sylla fired wide down the other end midway through the half in a rare sight of goal for the visitors.

The hosts then took the lead in the 29th minute with a stunning effort from Spaniard Maranon, who raced on to a throughball from Manny Ott, looked up and lifted a delicate chip over the stranded goalkeeper Sann Sat Naing from the right side of the area.

Ceres went two up less than five minutes later when Mike Ott’s strike from distance was parried out by the Yangon custodian, only for midfielder Patrick Reichelt to be at the right place at the right time to finish from close in.

As half-time approached, Maranon tapped home his second from a yard out after Manny Ott’s corner from the right found its way to the forward at the back post.