It was JDT’s second win of their campaign, both of which have come at Sultan Ibrahim Stadium as they triumphed for the third consecutive year against Ulsan, having beaten them in the 2022 and 2023 AFC Champions League™.
The loss left two-time Asian champions Ulsan against the ropes as it was their fourth consecutive defeat with no goals scored.
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JDT started with a high press approach and it was a tactic which nearly paid off in the fourth minute when Jo Hyeon-woo’s misplaced pass led to an Arif Aiman cross that wasn’t capitalised on by Jorge Obregon.
Ulsan’s preference to play the ball out from defence proved to be their undoing four minutes later when Arif wrested the ball from Kim Young-gwon, surged into the box and slammed the ball past Jo for his fourth goal of the campaign.
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The visitors eventually settled down, with more ball possession as the half progressed but suffered a setback with two early changes due to injuries to Matheus and Young-gwon.
JDT had a chance to double their lead just before the break after good link up play between Oscar Arribas and Arif but the former lacked composure with his finish, blasting the ball high over the bar.
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Ulsan – who lifted their third straight K League 1 title over the weekend – showed signs of life at the start of the second half with Lee Chung-yong going close with a curling shot before Yun Il-lok struck the post with a low drive
As the Korean side pushed higher up the pitch, that also meant more space for JDT to operate in the final third as Arif set up Bergson but the forward’s well-struck effort on the hour mark was saved by Jo.
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JDT finally found some room to breathe in the 67th minute when Arribas cut in from the right to beat two markers before unleashing a shot from outside the box took a heavy deflection off Darijan Bojanic and looped into the net over a hapless Jo.
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Bergson sealed the win for the home side in the 88th minute after he coolly took down Afiq Fazail’s pass to set himself up for a low shot into the bottom corner.
The Southern Tigers will look to add to their seven points when they take on China PR’s Shandong Taishan FC while Ulsan will hope to be able to finally get off the mark when they meet Shanghai Port FC, with both matches to be played on November 26.
