Churchill lose but advance in Champions League

Indian club Churchill Brothers lost their 'away' match in the Asian Football Confederation Champions League to Saigon Port 0-1 on Friday evening, in Vietnam, but advanced to the final qualifying round of the tournament because of their 2-0 'home' victory in Goa on October 11.

A goal late in injury time by Saigon striker Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, who headed home a cross from midfielder Ho Van Loi, denied the Indian team a point but it came too late for the hosts.

Churchill now run into Osotspa of Thailand in the third round of Zone Two (East) next month.

Facing a 0-2 deficit, the home side went on an all-out attack from the start, but Churchill did extremely well to have more men helping out in defence and contain Saigon strikers Nguyen Ngoc Thanh and skipper Vo Phuong Hai, who always looked threatening. And even when the defence was beaten, Churchill goalkeeper Edward Ansah proved hard to beat.

Strangely, India have two teams in the final qualifying round. Indian champions Mohun Bagan had advanced on Tuesday, after thrashing Valencia FC 3-0 in their 'away' match in Male, Maldives. The teams had drawn the first leg match 2-2, in Kolkata.

Bagan meet Korea's FA Cup champions Taejon Citizen, who thrashed Monte Carlo by an 8-1 aggregate. Taejon Citizen followed up on their 5-1 win at the Taipa Stadium a fortnight ago with a 3-0 victory.

The line-up for the final East Asia qualifying round:

Shanghai Shenhua [China] vs Geylang United [Singapore]
Mohun Bagan [India] vs Taejon Citizen [Korea]
South China [Hong Kong] vs Shimizu S-Pulse [Japan]
Osotspa [Thailand] vs Churchill Brothers [India]