Ceres booters blow one-goal advantage, settle for 1-1 draw

MANILA, Philippines — Ceres Negros FC blew a one-goal cushion and settled for a 1-1 draw with Vietnamese side Hanoi FC in the first leg of their AFC Cup semifinal duel Tuesday night at Panaad Stadium in Bacolod City.

Bienvenido Maranon put the Busmen on the driver’s seat with a 57th minute header but the hosts surrendered the equalizer to Senegalese Pape Omar Faye 10 minutes later to find themselves sharing the spoils with the visitors.

With a tied series and a crucial away goal scored by Hanoi, Ceres now needs to beat its Vietnamese rivals by 1-0 or at the very least force them to a 2-2 draw in the return leg on June 25 over at Hang Day Stadium to win the matchup and advance to the Asean zone semis for a record third consecutive year.

“I think we did really good. We didn’t get the result (win) but we did our very best,” said Maranon, who scored his 10th goal of the tournament. “Now we have to prepare (for the) next game, keep going and hopefully we can play a good game there (in Hanoi).”

Hanoi only needs a scoreless draw or a 1-1 stalemate in its home field to hurdle Ceres in the chase for the zonal finals berth.