United City FC suffers second-straight AFCCL defeat against Melbourne

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The United City Football Club is yet to win a single match in the 2022 AFC Champions League group stage after tasting another defeat at the hands of Melbourne City, 0-3.

For the second-straight time in the prestigious football tournament, the Philippine representatives failed to cash in a single goal since their opener loss to the Jeonnam Dragons.

It was a difficult match to execute for the former Ceres-Negros FC as the Melbourne squad just bullied them from the get-go.

Melbourne’s superb striker Stefan Colakovski drew the first blood after cruising past United City’s backline defense and shot past defender Matt Silva in the 34^th minute of the match.

The United City defense held their ground in the first half despite a whooping nine scoring attempts from the Melbourne side except for the Colakovski goal.

However, in the second half, Melbourne began to pull away courtesy of the efficient striking of their teen wonder Marco Tilio.

The 20-year-old star forward scored a brace and added the last two goals for Melbourne in the 59^th and the 75^th minute of the match.

Tilio had a beautifully-timed tap kick for his first goal of the match while sealing the win with a fine strike in the last 15 minutes of the match.

United City will still have the chance to get a win and enter the scoring column in Group G as they take on BG Pathum United in their next match.