Albirex Niigata (S) progressed to the semifinals of The New Paper (TNP) League Cup after cruising to a 2-0 win over nine-man GFA Sporting Westlake on Friday at the Jurong East Stadium.
Atsushi Kawata got the White Swans on their way by opening the scoring in the 36th minute. Rion Taki added a second with 11 minutes remaining to wrap up the three points.
Having also claimed a 2-0 win in their opening match against Home United on Monday, Albirex are guaranteed top spot in Group C and are the first team through to the last four.
Nonetheless, they did not win by the convincing scoreline many had expected before the match although it was not for the lack of trying.
Despite dominating proceedings from the opening whistle, the hosts struggled to really find a way past the resilient Westlake defence and were largely restricted to shots from a distance.
Fumiya Kogure and Hikaru Mizuno both failed to hit the target with speculative attempts, while Kawata could only send a header from a corner into the woodwork after climbing high at the near post.
But six minutes after the half-hour mark, Kawata managed to break the deadlock with a touch of good fortune. His fierce strike from the edge of the box took a wicked deflection and nestled into the bottom corner.
The White Swans continued to enjoy plenty of possession in the second half but spurned a golden opportunity to edge further ahead in the 52nd minute. Shotaro Ihata's penalty was saved by Asyfar Asyraf after Mizuno had been fouled inside the area.
Nonetheless, the visitors then undid all their good work three minutes later when they suddenly found themselves down to 10 men after Ruhaizad Ismail picked up a second booking.
Sutrisno Salleh was then shown a straight red in the 65th minute.
Albirex ultimately capitalised on the numerical advantage in the 79th minute when Taki latched onto a deft first-time pass by Kawata and finished past Asyraf to seal the win for his side.
Speaking after the match, Albirex coach Tatsuyuki Okuyama praised his side for negotiating past what they had expected to be a tricky encounter.
"We knew it would be difficult as our opponents would play defensively," he said. "But in the end, to score two goals and win against a difficult team is a very good job. I am happy with the performance."
Meanwhile, Westlake boss Jaslee Hatta was proud of the way his charges had gone about their business against their more established opponents.
"We're all very proud of the team," the ex-Singapore international said.
"We wanted to defend well and try to hit on the counter, and the players followed the plan very well."
Albirex Niigata (S): Yosuke Nozawa (Kenjiro Ogino 89'), Rui Kumada, Takahiro Saito, Kento Fujihara, Itsuki Yamada, Hikaru Mizuno, Shun Inaba (Kento Nagasaki 58'), Fumiya Kogure, Atsushi Kawata, Rion Taki, Shotaro Ihata (Hikaru Yanagawa 82').
GFA Sporting Westlake: Asyraf Asyfar, Rahman Hassan (Syed Karim 60'), Sutrisno Salleh, Fathi Yunos, Hairulnazari Abdullah, Dawood Anuar, Amir Asyraff (Saifuldin Ramli 69'), Ruhaizad Ismail, Suriyandi Naib, Yuto Nagai, Hakim Abdullah (Ryuta Hamamatsu 72')