The hosts emerged clear and comprehensive winners of a game in which they were forced to work without the ball for long periods. While they may have lost the possession battle, they earned their success through ascendancy in territory and chance creation.

Happy to let their opponents play, the speed and accuracy of their transition play proved decisive to the match outcome.

Coming off the back of defeat in the reverse fixture a week ago, Maldivian club New Radiant started strongly at the National Stadium and were rewarded on the half-hour mark when forward Ali Fasir calmly converted after fine play from strike-partner Ali Ashfaq to open the scoring.

Going into the break the hosts continued to grow in confidence, but it was only after half-time that they doubled their advantage. On this occasion, Ashfaq took advantage of a mistake from defender Rahul Bheke to extend his side’s lead after 47 minutes.

The game was finely poised throughout, and despite the hosts being the ones more in need of the win it was actually the visitors who packed the most punch over the 90 minutes.

The visitors were in control of the match throughout the 90 minutes and scored four goals in a game for the third time this campaign as they made it four wins from six in one of the competition's most hard-fought groups.

The Filipino side knew just a draw at home would be enough to secure their spot in the knockout rounds, but they weren’t content with just sitting back for the point they needed.

Instead they dominated the proceedings in the first half, with the visitors pushed back deep to defend, but couldn’t find the key to unlock the Home United defence, with stars Stephan Schrock and Bienvenido Marañon guilty of wasting chances to give Risto Vidakovic’s side the lead.

That trend continued in the second half, with Marañon in particular proving to be incredibly wasteful in front of goal, while Rudy Khairullah also stood tall with a number of decisive saves.

Aizawl started the brighter of the two sides and almost took the lead in the 16th minute of this Group E encounter, but Alfred Kemah Jaryan saw his attempt cleared off the line in the 16th minute.

Abahani took advantage of that stroke of luck and battled back well, with Sunday Chizoba hitting the frame of the goal from a free-kick in the 21st minute before firing off target from inside the area two minutes later.