Manila: A stoppage-time winner from Jose Porteria gave Philippines side Kaya FC their first ever points in the AFC Cup as they clinched a dramatic 1-0 victory over New Radiant of the Maldives in Group F on Wednesday.
After a first half of few opportunities at Rizal Memorial Football Stadium both sides had chances to win the tie in the final 15 minutes when Waheed Rilwan headed down and over for New Radiant and Antonio Ugarte was off target with his header for Kaya.
But just seconds from the end forward Porteria delivered a clinical finish as Kaya leapfrogged their opponents into third place in the group and level on points with Hong Kong’s Kitchee, who suffered a 1-0 defeat to Balestier Khalsa of Singapore in Tuesday’s other Group F encounter.
“I think we proved today that we were one of the best teams in the group,” said Kaya coach Joel Villarino.
“Sometimes things don’t go as planned as New Radiant did well in denying us from playing our game, but we never gave up.
“The most important thing was the never-say-die spirit; they kept pushing until the last minute. It’s now an open group with it all to play for.”
After a quiet opening 15 minutes it was New Radiant who had the first effort on target when captain Niyaz Ahmed forced Australian goalkeeper Matthew Acton into a low save.
The custodian was again down well to thwart forward Ahmed Suhail as he raced through on goal shortly after before Porteria fired over from distance for the home side.
Kaya came out strongly after the restart and defender Jim Munoz cut in from the left to drill his powerful effort just over on 47 minutes.
With chances at a premium New Radiant missed a glaring opportunity 15 minutes from time when Yaugoob Abdulla crossed from the right only to see Rilwan’s downward header from inside the six yard box bounce back up over the crossbar.
And a minute later Kaya could have opened the scoring as Kenshiro Daniels’ cross was headed over by Ugarte from six yards as the game started to open up.
Kaya then did snatch a winner deep into injury time when Porteria perfectly swept home Munoz’s cross from the right from 16 yards beyond the reach of goalkeeper Sulemana Abu to claim all three points at the death.
“I was expecting a very tough game, but we fought and defended well,” said New Radiant coach Iordan Stoykov.
“We knew Kaya were going to be aggressive and our strategy was to control the space on the field.
“We lost because of one defensive error and we should regret the lost points, but generally I’m satisfied with our performance.”
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