Tournament debutants Benfica Macau and a six-star Altyn Asyr were among the noteworthy performers in a week that saw the teams from the Central, South and East Zones take to the playing field for the first time.

Tuesday's hard fought 0-0 draw away at Group H leaders Song Lam Nghe An puts Persija Jakarta right back into the reckoning for a place in the AFC Cup knockout stage ahead of two vital home ties, according to their number 9 Marko Simic.

The Indonesians endured an opener to forget on February 14 when they lost 3-0 away at Johor Darul Ta'zim of Malaysia, but the Matchday Three draw in Vietnam was a solid follow-up to the 4-1 win over Singapore's Tampines Rovers in Jakarta.

Crucially, Simic and his side now have two consecutive fixtures on their own turf, where they will look for the fans to turn out again in numbers after the Persija fans broke an AFC Cup Group Stage attendance record against Tampines.

The away side were handed the opportunity to open the scoring in the 14th minute after a foul by Demerson on Ryutaro Karube resulted in a penalty. But Pape Omar Faye’s spot-kick was well saved by Wawan Hendrawan.

Five minutes later, Thanh Hoa came close again when a corner kick came off Demerson and rebounded back off his own crossbar.

It was no surprise when the Vietnamese side took the lead with a fine strike in the 29th minute. After they were awarded a free kick 20 yards from goal, Karube curled the ball into the top corner.

Just before half-time, Nguyen Trong Hoang fired in a powerful long-range shot that Hendrawan pushed wide.

But the hosts took the upper hand in the second half and levelled in the 66th minute through Yabes Roni. Nick van der Velden flighted the ball over the top and the substitute controlled the ball on his chest before prodding it past the advancing Tran Buu Ngoc and into the Thanh Hoa goal.

And Bali didn’t have long to wait for the second as Demerson headed home from Fadhil Sausu’s corner in the 72nd minute.

Incredibly, the home side went further ahead three minutes later. A free kick from van der Velden caught out the Thanh Hoa defence and Stefano Lilipaly latched onto the ball and lobbed it over Buu Ngoc to make it 3-1.

Bali United have edged one point ahead of Thanh Hoa in Group G and the Vietnamese side will be determined to take revenge when they face Bali on home turf next Tuesday.

The home side were looking to bounce back after a 4-1 loss to Persija Jakarta, while the visitors were hoping to do likewise after their loss to Song Lam Nghe An of Vietnam.

The only goal of the night came in the 25th minute when Nozim Babadzhanov snatched the ball from the Ahal defence on the right flank and crossed for Zenko Mikalai whose attempt from close range was parried by goalkeeper Ovezmyradov Ovezmyrat, but bounced off Guychmyrat and into the back of the net.

The hosts nearly added another within three minutes of the opener after Babadzhanov applied pressure on his opponents to recover the ball deep inside Ahal’s half and exchange passes with Mikalai before rattling the crossbar with a left footed effort from the edge of the area.

Istiklol were reduced to 10 men in the 86th minute after Sheriddin Boboev picked up a second yellow card for hand ball. The Tajik champions held on to their lead despite the one-man disadvantage to collect their first three points of the competition.

FC Ahal will look to end their winless run in the AFC Cup which now extends to four games as they welcome Kyrgyz Republic's FC Alay next week in Matchday Two. Meanwhile Istiklol travel to Turkmenistan to face Altyn Asyr.

The Myanmar side now top Group G, two points ahead of Indonesia’s Bali United who won 3-1 at home to Thanh Hoa of Vientam, at the midway stage.

However, it was Global who opened the match at Thuwunna Stadium the stronger side and Dominic Del Rosario hit the post, before forward Daryl Roberts also went close.

Yangon began to wrest hold of the tie by the half hour mark, though, and after Guinean striker Syla had already gone close on a number of occasions the hosts broke the deadlock just before half-time.

Maung Maung Lwin’s curled free-kick looped and dipped over Global’s defensive wall and beat a wrong-footed Patrick Deyto into the bottom corner to give his team the lead at the break.

And Yangon doubled their advantage just three minutes after the restart; Maung Maung Lwin went from goalscorer to provider with a deep cross from the right that was headed home by Syla.

Syla scored his second and Yangon’s third of the match on 57 minutes when he powered in field from the left, leaving defenders in his wake, before drilling a shot past Deyto from the edge of the area.

Global’s day went from bad to worse as the tie entered the closing stages with Marco Casembre sent off after receiving his second yellow card of the match.

The club from the Philippines will have to recover from the setback quickly with the return meeting between the sides in Manila coming next Tuesday.

Ceres enjoyed the lion’s share of the possession from the beginning but it wasn’t until midway through the first half that they had a clear sight on goal, when Mike Ott broke into the area from the left before side-footing narrowly wide.

Shan forward Christopher Chizoba's effort from the edge of the area was gathered by 'keeper Toni Doblas on 36 minutes, before Ceres frontman Maranon came close soon after but saw his curler hit the side-netting.

Then, on the stroke of half-time, Ceres’ Omid Nazari’s dipping free-kick from distance came down onto the roof of the net. Ceres continued to push for the opening goal after the restart and Kevin Ingreso drilled his shot from outside the box just wide as Shan held on.

It was beginning to look like it was not going to be the hosts’ night when an unmarked Maranon was off target with a header from six yards out after being teed up defender Manuel Herrera.

But the goal finally arrived with 11 minutes to play when Maranon fed Mike Ott, whose low delivery into the box was fumbled by goalkeeper Thiha Si Thu, before defender Hein Thiha Zaw made an even greater mess of clearing, allowing substitute Reichelt to finish from close in.

Ceres put the result beyond doubt when Mike Ott’s superb jinked run past three Shan defenders created space for him to roll the ball to Maranon, and the Spaniard made no mistake with the finish to put his side two up and round off the scoring.

Ceres and Shan will face off once more next week when the Filipino side travel to Yangon for Matchday Four of the AFC Cup.