OFC Champions League: Hekari United takes advantage on Lae City FC

The first matches of the national play-offs round of OFC Champions League started this weekend; in Papua New Guinea the current national champions Lae City FC could not take advantage of the home crowd and suffered a 2-1 defeat of Hekari United.

The current champions, that earned their 7th title in a row last weekend, even started the game upfront after a goal scored by Albert Morgan Jr – the striker was found free in the penalty box and just tapped-it home to the nets of Dave Tomare.

But in the second half the story of the game changed: the young striker Joseph Joe received the ball after a corner-kick and was able to control, turn it and slash a powerful shot that found the top corner of Lae City’s goalkeeper.

At the 60th minute, just ten minutes later of Joe’s equaliser, it was the turn of the talented midfielder Yagi Yasasa to just tap-it it to the nets of Ronald Warisan; the player was free in the penalty box after a solo effort play by Rex Naime. The rebound offered itself after being saved by Warisan to Yasasa and he made no mistake to put the former OFC Champions League champions ahead of Hekari at Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium.

The Port Moresby-based side managed to control Lae until the final whistle and grabbed a very important win away from home – you can watch the highlights of the match by clicking here. Lae City will need to step-up at Sir John Guise Stadium in PNG’s capital city if they want to once again take part of the group stage of the Champions League.