Goran Jerkovic gave Lao the lead on 15 minutes but his effort was cancelled out in the 39th minute by Hougang’s Charlie Machell before Plazibat scored twice in the second half to ensure victory.

Yangon came back from an early deficit with two quick goals, but Nguyen Cong Phuong’s 42nd minute strike helped Ho Chi Minh salvage a point.

The AFC Cup defending champions found themselves behind after only 15 minutes as Fayeq Mahamid gave the visitors the lead but Tarek El Ali and Ahmed Zreik scored in the second half to give Al Ahed their first win of the year.

In their second consecutive AFC Cup campaign, Hilal Alquds arrived to the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium hopeful of maintaining their positive record against Lebanese teams in the competition, having defeated Nejmeh SC in both legs at the group stage last season.

Becoming the seventh different Syrian team to feature in the AFC Cup, Al Wathba knew a tough challenge awaited them against Jordanian powerhouse Al Faisaly at the Amman International Stadium.

The hosts came racing out of the blocks as they looked to manifest their superiority against the debutants. Within two minutes, Polish forward Lukasz Gikiewicz was through on goal following Ehsan Haddad’s cross, but Al Wathba goalkeeper Hussain Rahal stepped out and smothered the ball.

The hosts came into their opening Group B encounter with an eye on maintaining their dominant form against Lebanese sides in the AFC Cup, having won six of their previous eight matches against opponents from Lebanon.

It was a meeting of familiar foes, having met in the 2018 edition where they drew their first encounter before Al Jaish claimed a 1-0 home win against Manama in the corresponding fixture.

With history on their side, Al Jaish were the first to make an attempt on goal through Warda Al Salama’s strike in the 10th minute but steady defending meant Manama were untroubled.