UNITED City FC stumbled to its second consecutive loss in the 2022 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League, bowing to Australia’s Melbourne City FC, 3-0, on Monday night in Pathum Thani, Thailand.
The reigning Philippine titlist gave up 21 shots and nine corners to the A-League kingpins, who dominated possession at 64.8% and found the back of the net through brace-scorer Marco Tilio and Stefan Colakovski.
The loss, which came three days after a 1-0 opening defeat to Korea’s Jeonnam Dragons, left United City at the bottom of Group G.
Melbourne, with four points on one win and one draw, took the lead on goal difference against BG Pathum United, which beat Jeonnam in the other game 2-0.
Colakovski fired a right-footed shot from the right side of the box in the 34th minute to put Melbourne on the board against listless United.
Twenty-year-old forward Tilio doubled the Australians’ lead 14 minutes after restart with his low effort from eight yards then got his second goal off a Raphael Rodrigues assist in the 75th to put the game beyond reach. — Olmin Leyba