By Lachlan Mitchell
Melbourne City has made history with a Marco Tilio double, sealing the clubs first win in the Asian Champions League.
City faced Philippine side United FC in Bangkok, after the A-League champions had a hard-fought one all draw with Thai side Pathum United.
The game was off to a shaky start by the Casey boys from the first whistle.
A defensive mix-up between Rostyn Griffiths and goal-keeper Tom Glover almost saw City concede in the very first minute.
A goal line scramble was required to avoid going one down in the early in the game.
Jordan Bos made his debut in the starting line-up and made an immediate impact.
A spearing cross from Marco Tilio finding Bos at the far corner almost led to the break-through, but unfortunately for City Bos couldn’t covert, skying the ball over the cross-bar.
City continued the press their opposition and finally made it count in the 34th minute.
Stefan Colakovski found himself one-on-one with the keeper after combining with Taras Gomulka.
The long ball from Gomulka sailed over the heads of the defence, to find Colakovski to hammer home his shot into the bottom left corner for City’s first.
City continued to dominate possession leading into the half-time break, but couldn’t capitalise on the scoreboard.
Japanese import Tsubasa Endoh was blistering down the wing, linking up with a sharp pass from Scott Jamieson.
Endoh sliced a ball across goal to find the feet of Marco Tilio to go two nil up on the hour mark.
Tilio once again had his name on the scoresheet 15 minutes later; the young-star connected with Raphael Borges Rodrigues to fire home his sides third of the evening.
City came away 3-0 victors after the final whistle was blown.
The win now has City rocketed to the top of Group G, with three games left to progress through to the next round.
Marco Tilio was the star of the show, scoring a double and helping his side secure their first win in the tournament.
“It’s good to score a couple goals but it’s about the team performance and I think tonight we went out and did reasonably well to get the result,” Tilio said in a City release.
“There’s always plenty of improvement there but we just look towards the next match now.”
City next play South Korean side Jeonnam Dragons on Friday morning.
