Taiwan’s Hang Yuen FC on Wednesday night got off to a good start in Macau, leading by two goals before halftime, and looked ready to make history with an away win, but Benfica de Macau had other plans, as the hosts rallied in the second half to win their Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup qualifier 3-2.
Striker Chen Ching-hsuan opened the account in the 19th minute, knocking in a header on a cross from just outside the 18-yard box.
Hang Yuen then doubled the lead in the 34th minute, when Haitian import Jean-Marc Alexandre made a penetrating pass into the box, where midfielder Hsu Yi then found Chen in front of the goal.
The in-form striker lashed it home for a brace, leaving the visitors with a two-goal advantage and seemingly on the way to a first victory by a Taiwanese team in the competition.
However, the visitors suffered a calamitous collapse within a 20-minute span in the second half, with Benfica storming back with three goals to win the home match.
Less than five minutes after the intermission, Gilchrist Nguema struck from inside the box during a scramble.
In the 61st minute, Carlos Leonel received a cross from the right, which he directed with a glancing header into the lower left corner to level the score.
Three minutes later, Leonel caught Hang Yuen’s defense napping during a corner and slotted the ball into the net from the far post for a brace to complete the comeback.
The hosts held firm the rest of the way for the victory, picking up three points to sit atop Group I.
“Our players lacked big-game experience. They got flustered when the other team scored its first goal,” Hang Yuen head coach Hung Ching-huai said after the game. “Our defenders did not close down tight and gave the opposition too much room. Then we conceded more goals, resulting in this defeat.”
In Taiwan’s top league, Taipower FC and Tatung FC last year finished first and second respectively, but they forfeited their spots in the AFC Cup, citing financial constraints.
The nation’s entry in the AFC Cup went to Hang Yuen, who were third in the league. They were placed in Group I, which also includes two North Korean clubs, 4.25 SC and Hwaebul SC.
The AFC Cup is Asia’s second-tier club circuit, with the region’s top teams vying for the prestigious AFC Champions League title.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but