The visitors started on the front foot and were ahead inside 13 minutes when captain Sunil Chhetri led a quick counter-attack, embarking on a solo run from the halfway line before squaring for Daniel Segovia who was left with a simple tap-in to open the scoring.

Chhetri was again the side’s prime creator three minutes later, as he controlled Erik Paartalu’s long pass inside the opposition area and laid off a pass for Nishu Kumar to strike into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

Bengaluru’s dominance continued after the break as Kumar doubled his tally in the 58th minute. Chhetri set up his teammate with a lobbed pass behind the defence and the number 22 chested the ball down before applying a composed finish on the half-volley from close range to make it 3-0.

 

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.

 

Needing to overturn a 3-1 deficit from the first leg, Al Ahed had the better of the early running at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, with Mohamad Haidar in particular looking quite threatening.

But against the run of play it was the visitors who took the lead when Iraqi international Humam Tareq threaded a perfectly weighted ball through to Hammadi Ahmad who made no mistake to put Air Force Club ahead after 23 minutes.