It has been a long and painful journey for Kaya FC's Mintah but, finally, after a brutal knee injury in May 2018, the 23-year-old striker made his impact on Continental club football with a stunning hat-trick on April 30 against Lao Toyota.

His first competitive goals since his long lay-off, last season's leading scorer prior to his injury insisted the setback to his burgeoning career only made him more determined to succeed.

The winners of Groups G and H have already been decided but top spot remains open in Group F while five teams also have a chance of finishing as the highest-placed runners-up.

After both sides drew their opening games of the campaign, Kaya were in control from the start at Panaad Park and Football Stadium after a Darryl Roberts brace and a goal from Jovin Bedic gave the hosts a 3-0 lead at the interval.

The game was put beyond doubt within 10 minutes of the restart when Alfred Osei netted twice as Kaya went on to register their first victory in the competition since defeating another Singaporean side, Balestier Khalsa, in the 2016 group stage.

Two-time ASEAN Zonal finalists Home United were 12 minutes away from entering the final round of Group H fixtures in the driving seat and then it all went wrong.

Leading 2-1 in Cibinong against PSM Makassar thanks to a brace from midfielder Hafiz that would have put them in pole position, the Singaporeans then conceded twice to not only put the Indonesians top of the standings in their place, but also punched their opponents' ticket to the ASEAN Zonal semi-finals.

Instead, Home United must now hope to claim the best second-placed side from the ASEAN Zone. To do so, they must not only defeat Kaya FC, but also hope their rivals, Becamex Binh Duong and Hanoi FC, drop points.

Kaya needed all three points to maintain a realistic chance of progressing to the knockout round, and they started the brighter of the two sides in this clash at Pana-ad Park and Football Stadium, sending a couple of sighters off target inside the opening 10 minutes.

Lao failed to pay heed to those warnings, and after Jordan Mintah cut inside Ketsada Souksavanh in the 11th minute and broke into the penalty area there was only going to be one outcome, with the Ghanaian poking beyond goalkeeper Outthilath Nammakhoth to make it 1-0.

In what was a clash of Group H’s top two teams, the game handed the winners the chance to open up a three-point lead on the losers and in turn secure the potentially important better head-to-head record.

A handball by Kaya defender Jalsor Soriano opened the door for Makassar in the 14th minute but a well-worked free kick came to nothing as Muhammad Rachmat’s pass into the penalty area narrowly avoided finding Eero Markkanen just a few yards out from goal.

With both sides undefeated heading into the Group H encounter, and with only the top of the pool guaranteed progression to the next round, both teams knew winning all three points was crucial to their Continental ambitions.

In a cagey opening to the game, it was the visitors who had the first chance of the game when Jordan Mintah was played in behind the PSM Makassar defence, but his attempt the curl the ball past Rivki Mokodompit was thwarted by the custodian.