New Radiant keep Home at bay: AFC Cup Group E

Maldivian outfit New Radiant picked up their first points in this year’s AFC Cup campaign with a hardfought 5-3 win over Singapore’s Home United in a thrilling Group E third round encounter on Wednesday.

The win, coming after New Radiant’s heavy drubbing in the previous rounds by Perlis, didn’t come easy at the National Stadium as they squandered a two-goal advantage only to recover in the dying moments.

New Radiant are still rooted to the bottom of the four-team table despite joining Home and Sun Hei on three points. Perlis are the leaders of Group E with six points.

The Male club fell behind after just four minutes when Home’s Mohd Rosman Sulaiman headed in a pinpoint cross. Ali Umar then leveled the proceedings on 22 minutes and New Radiant played cautiously to go into the breather with the score tied.

Ali Ashfaaq put New Radiant ahead in the 66th minute with a shot from the top of the box which beat Home goalkeeper Lionel Lewis squarely and Ahmed Thoriq made it 3-1 three minutes later.

Just when it looked like New Radiant would sweep their first full points in this year’s AFC Cup campaign, Indra Daud Sahdan made the best of a defensive lapse to put his side back in the game in the 77th minute. Egmar Goncalves fired the equaliser seven minutes from time and a draw loomed large but Thoriq connected with his head in a goalmouth melee and the balance swung in favour of New Radiant again in the 90th minute before Cristian Nitta killed off the contest in injury time.

Home United get the chance to avenge this defeat on April 25 when New Radiant travel to meet them in the fourth round.

Source: AFC