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Yangon brushes aside Cebu as superb Sylla haunts former club

Sekou Sylla haunted his former club as Yangon United thrash Global Cebu. Mike Romero/file
By Kevin Estrada

MANILA -- Global Cebu are in the brink of early exit in the AFC Cup after Myanmar's Yangon United brushed them aside with a 3-0 rout to remain on top of Group G in the Burmese capital Wednesday afternoon (early evening Manila time)

True to his form, Sekou Sylla tormented his former side, runners-up in the inaugural PFL season, with a second half brace to sweep their first half of their group stage tiffs despite ending the match with the visitors with ten men each.

The Queen City side was not on their usual bearings after Marikina pulled an opening day PFL shocker on them over the weekend and were punished by their inefficiency in front of the goal despite the close advantage on the possession count, condemning them to the bottom of the group with only a point to show for.

With the setback, coupled with Bali United's 3-1 win over FLC Thanh Hoa, it will be imperative for Marjo Allado to win the second half of their fixture, beginning with their return tiff with the Burmese side next week.

“We really need to score because we need to win all our remaining games to qualify,” he said after the match.

In the opening minutes, Cebu were the early aggressor, but Dominic Del Rosario hit the post and Darryl Roberts hit the shot wide to the left of Sann Sat Naing, who was a replacement for Kyaw Hzin Tet.

The Guinean forward then got away with a straight red just two minutes before half time after colliding with former teammate Patrick Deyto inside of the box

Lwin Maung Maung put the home side ahead after he curled a free kick in stoppage time left Deyto grounded to his spot.

Then Sylla polished his boots and made his mark early at the restart, firing his first on a header when Lwin turned provider with an out-swinging cross in the 48th minute.

The former Global forward then completed his brace nine minutes later, leaving Wesley Dos Santos for dead and fired a shot from outside of the box for the final count.

A hot Yangon weather translated it to the physicality of the match that saw Thein Zaw and Marco Casambre got tossed for their respective second bookable offences.

Follow him on Twitter: @KevinLEstrada