Making their bow on the continental stage, Kyoto looked nervous and Daejeon - in their return to this platform after 23 years - tried to capitalise on it.

A raking pass from defence by Kang Yoon-seong in the 11th minute was brought down expertly by Joo Min-kyu who saw his effort saved by Kyoto goalkeeper Halls before Ishida Masatoshi’s follow-up was blocked by Ishida Yusuke.

Yusuke once again came to the visitors’ rescue just before the half hour mark, nodding away the ball when it looked certain Joo was going to head in Lee Myung-jae’s teasing cross from the left flank.

In first half added time, Kyoto were lucky not to concede after Sato Kyo was caught out by the bounce of the ball and allowed Gustav Ludwigson to gain possession in the box but the Swede could only toe-poke his effort wide.

Daejeon thought they had taken the lead four minutes into the second half when Ludwigson smashed home Kang’s cross, only for VAR to overrule the goal for handball.

In a rare moment of uncertainty at the back for the home side, Anton Kryvotsiuk was robbed of possession by Arai Haruki but the Azerbaijan international showed good pace to recover and block the attempted strike.

Daejeon’s persistence eventually paid off in the 78th minute following several blocked shots, with the ball falling kindly for Bobsin on the edge of the box to fire a half-volley that cracked against the post before rolling into the net.

Kyoto pushed forward in the dying minutes and saw a lot of the ball but never really troubled Lee Chang-geun in Daejeon’s goal as the Korea Republic side eked out the win.