Tainan City FC’s campaign in the Asian Football Federation (AFC) Cup came to an end following a 3-1 loss to Hong Kong’s Eastern Long Lions in their group’s closing match at Buriram Stadium in Thailand on Thursday.

The loss was Tainan’s second consecutive defeat after losing to Hong Kong Premier League outfit Lee Man 3-1 on Monday, leaving the southern Taiwan city with zero points and last in the three-team Group J.

It was the second victory in a row for Eastern, following their defeat of Lee Man 3-1 on June 24, meaning they top the standings and advance to the Inter-Zone Semi-finals.

Back at the match on Thursday, Eastern only needed a draw to advance, but took the lead in the 17th minute after forward Mikael reacted to an inward swinging cross from the left by teammate Fernando, heading downwards and into the bottom right corner of the goal.

In the fifth minute of the second half, Eastern midfielder Sun Ming Him (???) doubled the Hong Kong side’s advantage before Tainan midfielder Ange Kouame gave his team hope by scoring their first goal nine minutes later.

However, those hopes were extinguished 13 minutes later when Eastern forward Víctor Bertomeu struck from eight yards out to end Tainan’s dreams of a comeback.

In order to advance to the next round Tainan had to defeat Eastern by three goals or more. The teams met in last year’s competition, with Eastern winning a closer game 1-0.

Before the latest match, Tainan’s head coach Kenneth Kwok (???) remained upbeat despite the 3-1 loss to Lee Man on Monday.

“We need to win by a certain number of goals, but this is not our concern, winning the game is our priority,” Kwok said. “We need to keep our spirits up. We have trained pretty well for this game and we want to show everyone the identity of the Tainan City team.”

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel