The Lion City Sailors did all they could to keep their hopes of reaching the knockout rounds of the 2025/26 Asian Football Confederation Champions League (ACL) Two alive, but ultimately fell short despite a 1-0 win over Selangor FC at the MBPJ Stadium on Wednesday (10 December).
Tsiy Ndenge’s first-ever goal in Sailors colours settled a hard-fought Group G contest in front of 2,354 fans and secured all three points for the reigning Singapore Premier League (SPL) champions on their trip across the Causeway.
While the victory saw the Sailors finish level with Bangkok United on 10 points from six matches — and with a superior goal difference — they missed out on a place in the next round due to an inferior head-to-head record against the Thai side.
Indonesia’s Persib Bandung won the group after a 1-0 victory against Bangkok, thanks to Ramon Tanque’s first half stoppage time winner.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for last season’s ACL Two finalists, even as Sailors Head Coach Aleksandar Ranković acknowledged the fiercely competitive nature of a group featuring four ASEAN sides.
“I have mixed feelings right now because we didn’t go through,” said Ranko. “There are not many teams that finish with 10 points and still not qualify. That says enough about this group, and just how tough it was.”
Nonetheless, the Sailors acquitted themselves well against Selangor in a match they knew they had to win to keep their qualification hopes alive.
“I think this is the most effective match that we’ve played in a long time,” Ranko reflected. “Both teams were playing to win, and I thought we controlled the match well, especially in the first half.”
The Sailors’ task in Malaysia was made harder by the absence of Lennart Thy, though Selangor were also without several key players due to injury, including Kevin Deeromram, Alvin Fortes, Zach Clough and Sharul Nazeem.
Backed by their home crowd, the Red Giants carved out the early openings. Faisal Halim fired over from Quentin Cheng’s cross in the sixth minute, before Sailors custodian Ivan Sušak was called into action to deny Chrigor Moraes twice in the space of five minutes.
At the other end, Anderson Lopes forced Kalamullah Al Hafiz into a save in the 17th minute after fashioning a couple of opportunities of his own.
The Sailors began to settle as the match went on, and in the 23rd minute, combative midfielder Tsiy showed his attacking instincts with a shot that was saved, before Maxime Lestienne sent a half-volley over at the end of the move.
Maxime was then fouled at the edge of the box and dusted himself off to take the resulting free-kick, which clipped the top of the crossbar as both sides went into the break still on level terms.
The Sailors carried that attacking spark into the second half and were duly rewarded after a clever short-corner routine. Song Uiyoung and Bart Ramselaar exchanged passes, with the Dutchman backflicking the ball into Song’s path. The Singapore international then picked out the arriving Tsiy, who rifled his shot emphatically into the net to break the deadlock.
“We were a bit sloppy in front of goal because in the final third we had a lot of crosses, but they were not really hurting Selangor. Luckily, we scored from the set-piece. Honestly, I thought it was a beautiful goal, and something straight from the training ground. We’ve tried it in many games, and we finally got it right,” said Ranko.
The goal marked the first time that Tsiy had found the back of the net in 297 days, with his last strike coming in February this year for former club Grasshopper Club Zürich against Servette FC in the Swiss Super League.
Selangor, who had yet to win in the ACL Two this season, looked to respond quickly through Faisal and Chrigor, though neither effort troubled the commanding Ivan in goal.
At the other end, Anderson embarked on a surging solo run but saw his shot saved by Kalamullah in the 84th minute. Chrigor then had one final attempt for Selangor in the closing stages, but he too could not find the target, as the Sailors held firm to secure the victory.
Despite bowing out of the ACL Two, Ranko insisted he was proud of the way his players fought on the pitch in the face of adversity.
“When you have a season like the last one, when you win every domestic trophy and play in the ACL Two final, the expectations were always going to be sky high,” said Ranko.
“I think we struggled with the group we had, and despite all of that, my players deserve all the credit for what we’ve been through since the start of the season, especially with some players getting injured in what is a considerably small squad for us.”
The Sailors will have little time to lick their wounds, with the Singapore Cup semi-final first leg against Balestier Khalsa at Bishan Stadium coming up this Sunday (14 December), as Ranko urged his charges to refocus quickly and look towards winning the remaining trophies still on offer this season.
“For the remainder of the season, we have to win the league and, hopefully, the domestic cup as well,” said Ranko. “We are still in with a shout in the (ASEAN Club Championship) Shopee Cup too. There’s still a lot to play for.”
