Brazilian forward Chrigor Moraes produced another brilliant brace against Nam Dinh FC as Selangor FC qualified for the Asean Club Championship Shopee Cup final following a 2-0 win in the semi-final second leg at Thien Truong Stadium on Wednesday (May 13).
A 4-1 aggregate win saw the Red Giants, making their Shopee Cup debut, advancing into the two-legged final on May 20 and May 27, where the Malaysian club will meet either defending champions Buriram United FC or Johor Darul Ta’zim FC, who are playing in the other semi-final.
Following last week’s first leg two-goal heroics, Chrigor proved to be the difference once more, first scoring from the penalty spot in the 40th minute before burying Nam Dinh’s hopes with a second goal in the 90th minute.
Trailing by a goal following last week’s 2-1 defeat, Nam Dinh made three changes to their starting 11 and threatened early on. Midfielder Arnaud Lusamba tested the visitors with a teasing cross in the 13th minute, which goalkeeper Sikh Izhan Nazrel parried away. Jose Wálber’s follow-up attempt was subsequently blocked by the Selangor defence.
Kim Pan-gon’s offensive game plan saw Selangor push forward at every given opportunity. A sweeping move involving captain Faisal Halim and Hugo Boumos in the 19th minute presented Chrigor with a gilt-edge chance, but the Brazilian’s attempted chip over the on-rushing goalkeeper Nguyen Manh Tran came to naught.
Four minutes later, Penambuco, one of three changes in the Selangor starting 11, tested Manh Tran once more as Selangor grew in confidence despite facing a boisterous 16,000-plus home crowd.
Nam Dinh’s forward Nguyen Xuan Son, the tournament’s leading scorer with seven goals, had a great chance to level the match on the night but agonisingly failed to connect cleanly from a Percy Tau cross.
Selangor got their just reward five minutes before half-time when Chrigor scored his fourth goal of the tournament, burying a spot kick into the top left corner after referee Takasaki Koji of Japan, following a VAR review, determined defender Mitchell Dijks had fouled Mohammad Majed Jamil Abualnadi during a Selangor corner.
Desperate to turn the tide, Nam Dinh made three changes after the break, with substitute Lam Ti Phong providing the much-needed spark.
He came close in the 50th minute, failing to connect a penetrating cross from Ciao Cesar, and then a minute later found the back of the Selangor net, only for Percy Tau, who had delivered the cross, to be judged offside after a VAR review.
It was pretty much one-way traffic in the second half, with another substitute, Trần Văn Kiên seeing a left-footed attempt saved comfortably by Sikh Izhan in the 57th minute.
Nam Dinh threw bodies forward in the latter stages of the match, but it was Selangor who found a second goal when Chrigor latched onto a long ball from Zikri Khalili before coolly slotting the ball past Manh Tran for his fifth goal of the tournament.
After the match, Chrigor credited Selangor’s hard work and praised the fans following the club’s qualification for the final.
"I’m very happy for these two goals, but more important is that we are in the final. We are in the final because we worked too much in the training every week, we played many, many, many games, and we deserved to be in the final.
"This is a magical night and now we have one more important game, the first leg of the final. We wait for a full stadium at MBPJ. Thank you to our fans for everything, we’re very happy."
Shopee Star of the Match: Chrigor Moraes (#91), Selangor FC
