SINGAPORE -- With the revamp of Asian football's club competitions, Singapore's Lion City Sailors will have to make do playing in the second tier AFC Champions League Two for the time being.
It does however mean that, while they were previously considered underdogs in the continent's top-level competition, they could just have a chance of going further in Asia this season.
That much was made clear ahead of their campaign opener against Zhejiang Professional when star man Maxime Lestienne stated his belief that they could make the knockout round.
And based on their first outing, they could just mean business.
With a disciplined and clinical performance, the Sailors pulled off an impressive upset at Jalan Besar Stadium -- taking the early lead at the top of Group F with a 2-0 win over the Chinese visitors, who also featured in the top tier of Asian football last season.
With Zhejiang, on paper at least, the strongest team in the group, the Sailors now have an important three points in the bag ahead games against Port and Persib Bandung that they will also feel they have every chance of winning.
As they should, if Thursday's performance was anything to go by.
While Zhejiang enjoyed more possession for much of the opening 45, they failed to muster a single shot on target and instead, it was the hosts who snatched the lead a minute before halftime.
Hariss Harun was made a career out of being a force of nature in the middle of the park with goals not necessarily his primary selling point.
In fact, prior to Thursday, he had only scored twice in 46 previous continental appearances. He did not score in 2023 and was yet to open his account this season.
Yet, as a loose ball fell to him on the edge of the area, he displayed superb technique to meet it first time with a low drive that skidded just off the surface and found the bottom corner with unerring accuracy.
Now in possession of the lead, the Sailors were always going to approach the second half with even more caution while looking to hit on the counter.
The defence held up well but, even when they were breached, Izwan Mahbud held firm -- even making a handful of smart saves to boost his prospects of becoming Singapore's next No. 1.
And just when it looked like the hosts might set their stall up for all-out defence in the final stages of the contest, they instead went on to find a second goal to kill off the contest.
With Bart Ramselaar driving down the middle, the opportunity looked to have been spurned when he opted against threading a ball through Lennart Thy.
Still, it proved the right call to spread it out right to Lestienne, who -- despite being faced with a covering defender and a trying angle -- proceeded to send a trademark sublime curler past the despairing dive of Dong Chunyu.
It was the perfect start to what will be a long and arduous campaign, especially if the Sailors are to go far.
It may not be the AFC Champions League Elite that they are competing in this season, but the Sailors could certainly be the real deal in the AFC Champions League Two.