GLOBAL Football Club kissed good-bye its Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League bid after absorbing a 0-6 rout from Australian Club Brisbane Roar on Tuesday at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
Striker Brandon Borello scored a brace—the first three he made in the first 30 minutes alone—emphasizing Australian football’s supremacy over the Philippines. Australia has qualified for the World Cup four times (1974, 2006, 2010 and 2014).
Manuel Arana made it 4-0 for the home team in the 37th minute as the Filipino club scrambled to get its act together against the A-League squad. Arana was again responsible for his side’s fifth goal in the 65th minute, before Borello made it 6-0 10 minutes before the whistle.
Global FC, the first Philippine club to win in an AFC Champions League match—2-0 over Tampines Rovers of Singapore at home in Stage 1—will be relegated to Group F of the 2017 AFC Cup.
Global begins its AFC Cup campaign on February 21 against Magwe of Myanmar at the Rizal Memorial Stadium. They will also face in a two-round home-and-away group stage JDT of Malaysia and either Boeung Ket Angkor of Cambodia or Lao Toyota of Lao PDR.
Another Filipino club, Ceres Negros, will see action in the AFC Cup for the second straight year. Ceres is bracketed in Group G with Tampines Rovers, Hanoi FC of Vietnam and Felda United of Malaysia.
Brisbane, meanwhile, advanced to the final qualifying match against Chinese powerhouse Shanghai Shenua, which boasts of Argentinian star Carlos Tevez. The winner will qualify in Group E of the 2017 AFC Champions League group stages.