Motivated Song leads Sailors to ACL2's last 16

South Korea-born midfielder Song Ui-young showed Singapore coach Tsutomu Ogura just what he will be missing with a clinical hat-trick to help Lion City Sailors beat Thailand's Port FC 5-2 at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Dec 5.

- David Lee

The 31-year-old's treble helped his team to finally clinch a last 16-spot in the Asian Champions League 2 (ACL2) as Group F winners. The draw for the knockout stage will be held on Dec 12, with the two-legged round-of-16 matches taking place in February.

Talking about his sensational scissors kick to help his team lead 3-2, Song, who received Singapore citizenship in 2021, joked: "Actually I learnt it from Shawal (Anuar)."

He added: "Making history for the club and our country gave me a big motivation to score that goal. It's like a miracle because I've never scored like that before, and I'm very happy."

The Sailors could have advanced to the knockout rounds of Asia's new second-tier club competition as early as Nov 7, and then again on Nov 28. But on both occasions, they squandered a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 to Indonesia's Persib at home and then 4-2 at China's Zhejiang.

For 15 second-half minutes against Port, it looked like they were stuck in a nightmarish infinity loop as they threw away a 2-0 cushion again. Anything but victory would mean elimination if the other Group F match between Persib and Zhejiang produced a winner.