ACL 2: Late Noah Baffoe strike gives HK Eastern 2-1 road win at Kaya Iloilo

Felipe Sa joins Noah Baffoe in celebrating the latter's game-winner for Hong Kong Eastern against Kaya Iloilo. AFC

By Ivan Saldajeno

MANILA--Noah Baffoe broke the heart of Kaya Iloilo as he scored the winning goal in Hong Kong Eastern's 2-1 victory on the road in their AFC Champions League 2 clash on Friday at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.

In the match that was pushed back by a day due to severe tropical storm "Kristine", the Ghanian-Spanish forward hit a long-range bomb that broke a 1-all deadlock as Eastern showed that its football club is as strong as its basketball squad that the Filipino sports fans are more familiar with.

Baffoe stunned Patrick Deyto with a shot from outside the right side of the penalty box in the 78th minute to put the Long Lions back up against the Mighty Lions in a tight noontime catfight.

Marcos Gondra put Hong Kong Eastern up in the 28th minute with a long shot of his own from the left side that left Deyto baffled.

However, Kaishu Yamazaki scored on a penalty just before halftime to force the 1-all tie.

Kaya Iloilo had been aggressive for most of the second half only that Baffoe's match-winner turned the tides for Eastern.

Eastern scored its first win of the ACL 2 season to move up to third place in Group E with three points, while Kaya Iloilo ended the first round winless after three matches to crash to the bottom of the group.

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