Lion City Sailors' brave maiden voyage in AFC Champions League ended by defeat to Daegu

Lion City Sailors' debut campaign taking on Asia's elite in the AFC Champions League has come to an end at the group stage, following a 2-1 loss to Daegu on Saturday evening.

Needing a win to stand any chance of reaching the Round of 16, the Sailors got just what they were looking for in the 26th minute when Song Ui-young latched onto the loose ball on the edge of the box and unleashed a powerful drive into the bottom corner.

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But nine minutes after the restart, Daegu -- who also needed a win to make sure of their place in the last-16 -- when a hopeful left-wing delivery from Hong Chul sailed over a sea of players before being bundled home at the back post by Lee Keun-ho.

With the match evenly poised, proceedings were then halted with 15 minutes remaining due to a torrential downpour, which rendered the pitch unplayable.

Following a 30-minute delay, the game finally restarted and just shortly after -- with ten minutes remaining -- Daegu would go on to claim the victory through a Zeca penalty, after Amirul Adli had manhandled Kim Jin-hyuk inside the area while attempting to prevent him from getting to a high ball.

The defeat meant Sailors would finish the group stage third in Group F while Daegu advance to the Round of 16 for a second consecutive season as winners.

Saturday's other Group F tie saw Urawa Red Diamonds run riot in a 5-0 rout of Shandong Taishan, with Tetsuya Chinen and Yusuke Matsuo both grabbing doubles after Kaito Yasui had opened the scoring.

Although the win was not enough to see Urawa finish ahead of Daegu due to an inferior head-to-head record, they had already sealed their progress to the knockout round before Saturday by virtue of them being guaranteed one of the best runners-up spots at minimum.