Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Yangon: Hong Kong’s Citizen rounded off their maiden AFC Cup campaign with a 2-1 win over fellow tournament debutants Yangon United at the Youth Training Centre on Tuesday.
With neither side able to progress to the knockout stage with Thailand’s Chonburi and Singapore’s Home United guaranteed passage from Group G, Citizen opened up a two-goal lead through strikes in either half from Yuto Nakamura and Tam Lok Hin.
Yangon hit back through Yan Aung Kyaw just after the hour mark and the home side were unlucky not to complete the comeback as first Kyi Lin’s hit the post before substitute Kyaw Dunn had a goal ruled out in stoppage time.
“Our players tried hard even though the weather was not very favourable to us because it was too hot,” said Citizen coach Chu Kwok Kuen. “But they tried and that's why they got their desired result although we were a bit lucky.
“Yangon Untied are a good team with talented and skilful players but they didn’t have luck in this tournament.”
Citizen enjoyed the ideal start as Nakamura’s deflected strike opened the scoring for the visitors after just six minutes.
And Citizen doubled their advantage 10 minutes into the second half as Brazilian striker Paulinho headed Nakamura’s cross back across the face of goal and Tam turned the ball home from close range.
Yangon responded nine minutes later as the home side worked a corner to Kyaw on the edge of the Citizen area and the midfielder drilled a spectacular strike past goalkeeper Tse Tak Him.
Tse was beaten again just three minutes later, but unfortunately for the home side Lin’s strike from inside the area came back off the post following a jinking run from the hard-working midfielder.
And winless Yangon were unlucky not to earn a third draw of the campaign as substitute Dunn struck in the sixth minute of stoppage time only for the goal to be ruled out for offside.
Yangon United coach Eric Williams lamented the fact that he was unable to field a full-strength squad for the final match in his team’s disappointing AFC Cup debut campaign.
“We had three suspended player, two foreign players who had their contracts terminated contract and one player who is now in Korean with our national youth team. That is why we didn't have a big squad for today’s match and we didn’t even have enough substitutes,” said the Australian.
“Most of our players were not my first choice but they tried their best. We have had no luck in this year’s AFC Cup and our rivals in this Group are also tough, strong and have quality and experience.
“Hopefully, we will win the national league again this year and we will compete in next year’s AFC Cup and we will see a better team at that time.”