KUCHING — Kuching City FC and Tampines Rovers FC traded two goals in a frantic final five minutes to share the spoils in a thrilling 2-2 draw in their ASEAN Club Championship Shopee Cup™ Group A opener at Stadium Negeri Sarawak.

Tampines looked to have done enough to leave Kuching with all three points after taking the lead in the first half and restoring their advantage just two minutes after the hosts had levelled.

But Kuching refused to stop pushing. Two late goals from Gabriel Peres, either side of Kohya Kazama’s second Tampines goal, completed a remarkable finish to a game that had been much more cautious in its opening stages.

For Tampines head coach Nazri Nasir, the final result was a frustrating one after his side had followed their game plan for much of the night. “I’m very happy and very proud of my players,” Nazri said after the match. “I think they’ve done what we expected them to do coming here. It’s not an easy game.”

It was a tentative start from both sides on a hot and humid night in Kuching, with the opening exchanges reflecting the pressure of a first competitive match in the new Shopee Cup campaign. Both teams appeared to be assessing one another, with possession changing hands regularly and neither side able to establish sustained control.

Tampines, however, were the first to make their pressure count.

The visitors took the lead in the 13th minute when Nabel Yoshitaka Furusawa reacted quickest inside the penalty area to put Tampines ahead. The early goal immediately changed the dynamic of the contest. Kuching were forced to take more initiative, while Tampines could settle into a more conservative shape and look for opportunities on the counter-attack.

For the home supporters, the frustration was evident as they waited for their side to respond. The question was increasingly whether Tampines could find a second goal and put the game beyond Kuching, or whether the hosts could find an equaliser and turn the contest into a completely different game.

The answer would eventually be the latter. But not before Tampines had to withstand considerable pressure.

Kuching emerged with greater purpose after the interval. The home side pushed higher and began committing more players forward, while Tampines were happy to soak up the pressure and wait for opportunities to counter.

It was a strategy Nazri acknowledged was deliberate. “Honestly, yes. That was basically the plan for the second half, to stay compact at the back,” he explained. “We know Kuching are very strong, so we needed to be very defensive. Our game plan was to go for the counter-attack, and we did that.”

Tampines had opportunities of their own. Kohya Kazama pulled an opportunity wide from 12 yards, while Hide Higashikawa also had a chance to extend the visitors’ lead. But at the other end, Kuching continued to ask questions.

Tampines goalkeeper Zharfan Rohaizad was increasingly important to his side’s chances of holding onto their advantage, producing a superb save in the 64th minute to deny Kuching. The longer the second half went on, the more Tampines were forced to defend.

Kuching’s substitutions injected further energy into the home attack, while the visitors were increasingly pinned back. “We defended 100 per cent,” Nazri said. “The effort was very good and the players deserve credit.”

Kuching head coach Aidil Sharin Sahak, meanwhile, felt his side had done enough over the course of the match to deserve more. “If you look at the game, we dominated well and I think we don’t deserve to lose this game,” Aidil said. “We had a few chances and we also have to give credit to the goalkeeper and defence of Tampines, who did well to stop us.”

With the pressure mounting, Kuching finally found their breakthrough in the 86th minute. Peres unleashed a long-range effort that took a deflection on its way through the Tampines defensive line before beating Zharfan.

Stadium Negeri erupted. At 1-1, momentum was suddenly with the hosts. And yet, Tampines responded almost immediately. The visitors produced a fine piece of interplay in the final third, with Higashikawa involved in the move before Kazama finished to put Tampines back in front in the 88th minute. It was a devastating response.

Having spent much of the second half absorbing pressure, Tampines appeared to have found the decisive moment that would secure a memorable away victory. But there were still several minutes left. And Kuching were not finished.

The hosts immediately went forward again. Kuching continued to search for openings, with the players refusing to accept that the match had slipped away.

Their persistence paid off once more. In the third minute of stoppage time, Peres found the back of the net again to bring the score to 2-2 and complete a dramatic personal double. The final whistle soon followed. For Tampines, the late collapse was difficult to swallow.

Nazri pointed to the final stages as the decisive difference. “You can see that in the last five to 10 minutes, basically, we just lacked concentration,” he said. “The fatigue is there, and that’s what happened. But that’s football. Football is not only 90 minutes — it’s 90 plus five or whatever it is.”

Tampines had also had to manage players returning from international duty and others making their first competitive appearances for some time, factors Nazri felt contributed to the difficult closing stages.“Some players came back from the national team, and some players just played their first game,” he said. “Irfan Pandey was also coming into the match after a long break. So, as I said, the second half was about the counter-attack. That was the game plan.”

Aidil, however, was pleased with the mentality his team showed to keep pushing. “The players didn’t stop working hard,” he said. “The winning attitude is always there. This is football and we shouldn’t stop here. We should continue from where we left today.”

The Kuching coach also acknowledged that his side had areas to improve despite the dramatic comeback. “The concentration and also the mistakes that we made during the game — that’s something we can learn from,” Aidil said. “Football, for me, is all about mistakes. We will definitely rectify the mistakes, learn from them and try not to repeat them in the next game.”

The contrasting approaches made for an intriguing second half. Tampines’ compact defensive shape made it difficult for Kuching to break through centrally, forcing the hosts to look for ways around the visitors’ defensive block.

Aidil admitted that breaking down a deep, disciplined defence was something his team would need to learn from. “It’s not going to be easy because Tampines played with five at the back and they compacted very deep,” he said. “They are a good team, and definitely this is not going to be easy for us.”

“But this is where we can learn something: how to overcome it next time if a team plays like this, sits back and stays compact.”

Kuching made adjustments after falling behind, with Aidil looking to add more dynamism and speed to the attack. “We had to make a little bit of changes because we were down 1-0,” he explained. “We could see certain areas that we needed to explore, which would bring a little bit more dynamic and speed.”

He highlighted the contributions of Declan and Pedro, particularly their willingness to overlap and create more problems on the flanks. “They came in and did a good job,” Aidil said.

The match also brought together two coaches who know each other well. Aidil revealed that he and Nazri had previously been teammates at both international and club level, and had continued to cross paths through coaching education.

“We were teammates before. We played for the national team and even for clubs,” Aidil said. “We are coaches together and we always do a lot of coaching education together because Singapore is very active in coaching education.”

Aidil was pleased to see Nazri taking charge of Tampines at club level. “It’s nice to see him as the head coach of the club,” he said. “Hopefully he can do better and bring the Singapore flag higher.”

Nazri, meanwhile, praised Aidil’s work in Malaysia and revealed that Tampines had prepared specifically for the challenges posed by his Kuching side. “We studied,” Nazri said. “We looked at certain individual players that we needed to take note of. That was part of my preparation for this game.”

For Kuching, the standout figure was undoubtedly Peres. The defender’s two goals not only rescued a point but also made for a memorable first appearance in the competition. “I feel good in my first match in this stadium,” Peres said. “I will try my best every match and every game. My team will work hard every day.”

The Brazilian admitted that he would have preferred all three points. “Of course I want to win every match, but this is football,” he said. “I want to keep this performance and help the team. In my opinion, I think in the next game we can win. We will push more.”

His first goal was also an example of a player trusting his instincts. “In many situations, we cannot play inside and we try crossing,” Peres explained. “But I saw everyone’s back and I saw the space. In my mind, I wanted to try shooting.”

Aidil was unsurprised. “He has the strength and the quality,” the Kuching coach said. “It’s good that he took the chances whenever they were given. Definitely, we can see more from him.”

In the end, neither side could claim the victory. Tampines had been within minutes of securing three points after executing their defensive game plan for much of the contest, only for concentration and fatigue to catch up with them in the closing stages.

Kuching, meanwhile, showed considerable character to recover from two separate deficits and earn a point in front of their home supporters. For Aidil, the result offers both encouragement and a warning. “You can’t afford to make one silly mistake and they will punish you because these are all the top teams and quality players in the team,” he said.

For Nazri, the disappointment of surrendering the lead so late will be balanced by the performance his players produced for much of the evening. The opening night of the 2026/27 Shopee Cup ultimately delivered exactly what continental club football can promise: tactical discipline, momentum swings, individual quality and a finish that remained uncertain until the final whistle.

After 90 minutes, Kuching City and Tampines Rovers had two goals apiece, and both sides left Stadium Negeri knowing there was plenty to take from an unforgettable opening chapter.