Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Sendai: Spanish defender Osmar Barba scored 14 minutes from time to earn a point for Buriram United as the Thai Premier League side secured a 1-1 draw with Vegalta Sendai in Group E on Tuesday.
Barba had earlier been adjudged to have handled the ball in his own penalty area, allowing Ryang Yong-gi to opening the scoring from the spot in the 52nd minute for the home side before making amends.
The 24-year-old headed home a corner from substitute Anthony Ampaipitakwong in the 76th minute to give Buriram a deserved share of the points.
“I’m very satisfied with the result today as we played in Sendai and they have high quality players,” said Buriram coach Attaphol Puspakom. “When we gave away the goal via the penalty, I thought we failed, though.
“At halftime, I told our players to carry on doing what we were doing. We couldn’t move around as much as we wanted in the first half but as the game went on we started moving better. So, I was confident that we would be alright in the second half.
“It was lucky for us as it wasn’t as cold as yesterday. Things went better than I thought they might.”
Sendai could have taken the lead as early as the 15th minute only for Shingo Tomita to fire his effort just wide while at the other end three minutes later Anawin Jujeen hit the side netting with his effort for the visitors.
Yuki Muto went close to putting Sendai in front five minutes after the restart when, following a mistake by the Thai defence, he could only put his effort wide of the mark.
But two minutes later the J.League runners-up took the lead when Barba was penalized after miscontrolling the ball on his chest and Ryang slotted the penalty past Siwarak Tedsungnoen.
Shingo Akamine’s header forced Siwarak into action six minutes later as Sendai sought to kill the game off, but Buriram ensured they took a point back to Thailand thanks to Barba’s header.
“It would have been better if we could have collected three points from our first ACL match but we still have got one point, which I told our players to appreciate,” said Sendai coach Makoto Teguramori.
“We scored first and had chances to score additional goals, but we couldn’t make it. In football, if you don’t take your chances, you get punished.
“We have just started the season and the ACL. I hope we can learn from this and use this experience in the coming matches to make ourselves more controllable on that and move forward. I am convinced that our players are capable of doing that.”
Photo: AFP