The match

Two days before the game, Mário Silva had told the AFF what worried him. “We created chances, but our finishing wasn’t good enough,” Buriram’s new manager said of the narrow win over Chonburi before the international break. “We need to work on that.” Against Borneo the work was not visible. Buriram had 60% of the ball, nine corners to none and an expected-goals figure of 2.10, according to FootyStats, against 0.95. Thirteen of their 22 shots missed the target, six were blocked and three reached Kadú.

The best of them did not count as any of those. Two minutes after half-time Paulinho met the ball first time with his left foot and it hit the inside of one post, ran along the goal line and struck the other before coming out. In the first half Caju had volleyed over from Antonio Moya’s pass and dragged a low shot across the face of goal. Bissoli, the official Star of the Match, put one chance high, and in the 80th minute Ikhsan Zikrak, on as a substitute, cleared Eduardo Mancha’s header off the line.

Borneo were organised rather than passive. Mauro Jerónimo had planned for Buriram’s crosses to the far post, and his side were not simply surviving: Kablan N’Goma made Chatchai Bootprom dive in the 64th minute, and the goalkeeper did not hold it cleanly. Silva’s changes, Vukan Savićević and Stefan Schimmer just before the hour and Alexandru Tudorie later, added bodies but no sharper finish. Then, a minute from time, Narubadin Weerawatnodom pulled back the substitute Hugo Samir and collected a second yellow card. Buriram finished with ten men.

The managers

Mário Silva (Buriram United) and Mauro Jerónimo (Borneo). Silva, who replaced Mark Jackson in September, inherits a team that has won the first two editions of this competition. The finishing problem he described before the game is now the main story of his first continental night. Jerónimo told I.League that his staff knew Buriram “usually attack a lot at the far post through crosses, free kicks and corners”, and he picked out Kadú for praise. Thanakrit Chotmuangpak was unbothered. “We’re already the defending champions, and I believe the standard of our team is high enough to win the title again,” he told the AFF.

The match

Ratchaburi were outplayed at home for long spells and still did not lose. Công An Hồ Chí Minh City, also making their debut in the competition, arrived with Arthur Diles promising to attack, and they did. Thanh Niên counted four chances to one in the first quarter of an hour for the visitors despite their having only 37% of the ball. Jason Cummings, Aldaír Ferreira and Kevin Yamga ran at Ratchaburi’s back five on the break. Just before half-time Olaha Mạnh Đức, who received Vietnamese citizenship only last month, hit the post from distance.

Three minutes after the restart he scored. Ferreira found him and Olaha curled a left-footed shot into the far corner beyond Nopphon Lakhonphon. Worrawoot Srimaka had already changed three players at half-time and made two more before the hour. In the 66th minute Bruno Mendes headed in, but VAR ruled it out for offside. Công An had the better chances on the counter: Đinh Quang Kiệt, Quốc Cường and the substitute Leo Gomes all shot, and Nopphon stopped Gomes late on with the save that kept Ratchaburi in the game.

Then, two minutes into stoppage time, Ratchaburi won one of their ten corners. Scott Allardice lost his marker, Đinh Quang Kiệt, and forced the header home from close range. Công An finished with 17 shots to Ratchaburi’s 13, and FotMob had possession level at 50–50.

The managers

Worrawoot Srimaka (Ratchaburi) and Arthur Diles (Công An Hồ Chí Minh City). Diles had spoken before the game of a squad “with depth and many talented young players” combined with “quality veterans and some very good foreign players”, and for 92 minutes it looked like the stronger squad. Worrawoot’s triple change at half-time suggests he was far from happy with the first 45 minutes. In a group of seven where four go through, the point matters more than the performance, but Tampines away on 18 November will need a better one.

The match

Tampines Rovers came for a point and very nearly left with three. Nabel Yoshitaka Furusawa scored with a close-range volley from Hide Higashikawa’s cross after 13 minutes, and the Singaporeans then defended in a compact 3-5-2 while Kuching had two-thirds of the ball and 29 shots. Aidil Sharin made three changes on 59 minutes, sending on João Pedro among them, and the pressure finally told late on.

Gabriel Peres, a centre-back, equalised in the 87th minute. A minute later Kohya Kazama put Tampines ahead again. In stoppage time João Pedro crossed and Peres steered in his second.

The managers

Aidil Sharin (Kuching City) and Nazri Nasir (Tampines Rovers). “I don’t want to say ‘parking bus’, but they were very compact,” Aidil told TVS afterwards. “Every coach has his own tactics… we must respect them.” Peres, the Star of the Match, shared the credit: “This man of the match is not for me, it’s for my group, my coach.”