MANILA, Philippines — Ceres Negros FC blew a one-goal lead and settled for a 2-2 stalemate with Vietnamese club Than Quang Ninh in their AFC Cup home game Tuesday night at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
OJ Porteria gave the Busmen a 2-1 upperhand with a cool finish from a Bienvenido Maranon delivery at the 62nd minute. But their failure to clear their lines in a Than set piece eight minutes later allowed Nguyen Hai Huy to fire the equalizer.
Despite dropping points, the reigning Philippine champs stayed on top of Group G with four markers through two matches, ahead of Cambodia’s Svay Rieng and Indonesia’s Bali United at three apiece. Svay Rieng, which lost to Ceres (0-4) two weeks ago, upset Bali in its own turf, 2-1.
Ceres coach Risto Vidakovic expressed disappointment over his charges’ showing on People Power Day in front of 5,078 supporters.
“We didn’t play good today. It’s not the way we normally play. We played too slow and we couldn’t read the game exactly as we normally do,” he said.
The Vietnamese actually drew first blood against Ceres as Nguyen issued an incisive through ball that allowed striker Jeremie Lynch to round out keeper Roland Muller and send a left-footed shot into the bottom right corner at the 26th minute.
The Busmen cancelled that out just before halftime on a Maranon penalty kick, and eventually went one-up via Porteria’s right-footed shot from the center of the box.