Visitors Sanna Khanh Hoa FC from Vietnam swamped Boeung Ket Angkor 5-1 in their second-leg tie at Olympic Stadium yesterday evening to complete a 9-5 aggregate win in the Toyota Mekong Club Championship opener.
The V.League 1 side and the Metfone C-League toppers were locked 4-4 after the first leg in Hanoi on Saturday.
Sanna will now take on Lao Toyota in Sunday’s semifinal.
A seemingly innocuous goalmouth incident turned ugly for Boeung Ket when goalkeeper Sou Yaty, leaning heavily on midfielder Le Duy Thanh, conceded a penalty.
Stepping up for the spot-kick, Hanoi hat-trick hero forward Youssouf Torre sent Yaty the wrong way to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Within minutes, Sanna doubled their advantage when a fierce drive from the edge of the box by midfielder Nguyen Dinh Nhon beat Cambodian national side keeper Yaty.
Yet Boeung Ket managed to claw their way back into the game after Maycon Calijuri failed to connect with a header from a Chan Vathanaka corner but saw defender Sok Sovann on hand to turn the ball home.
The half seemed headed for a tight finish as Boeung Ket held out the promise of another Hanoi-style rearguard, before an injury to Yaty led to his replacement by Kim Makara moments before the break.
A confident start to the second half by Boeung Ket kept the visitors on their toes, and there were at least two decent attempts by the Cambodian league winners to level the scores.
The most promising of Boeung Ket’s attempts to get back on level terms came in the 55th minute when Esoh Omogba earned a penalty, but the hitman who scored three to salvage Saturday’s draw, Calijuri, feebly hit his spot-kick at the keeper.
To add to Boeung Ket’s misfortune, the Blue Dragon had defender Sun Sovanarithy sent off for handball not long after Calijuri’s demoralising miss.
Boeung Ket’s fight disappeared after this, and Torre, midfielder Nguyen Hoang Quoc Chi and Duy Thanh added a goal each to complete a 5-1 rout, as the second leg ended in a disappointing anticlimax for Boeung Ket after the eight-goal thriller just five days earlier.
