Lopes opened proceedings in the seventh minute when he headed home from inside the six-yard box after some good teamwork from Maxime Lestienne and Bart Ramselaar, who started the move from a cut-back.

Shoddy defensive work by Malaysia’s Selangor six minutes later saw the Brazilian striker scoring his second when he pounced on a deflection off a Ramselaar attempt, swerved around keeper Kalamullah Al Hafiz and gleefully slotted the ball into an empty net.

Play swung to the other end soon after, with Sailors’ keeper Ivan Susak punching out a dangerous corner from Selangor captain Faisal Halim in the 27th minute and then blocking a stinging shot from Alvin Fortes two minutes later.

The match was suspended in the 31st minute and upon resumption, the visitors were awarded a penalty four minutes later after Susak brought down Chrigor Moraes, who then made no mistake from the spot by slamming the ball under the keeper.

Ramselaar came close in the first minute of time added on but his attempt from distance was smartly pushed away by Kalamullah. 

The keeper, however, was caught off position three minutes later when a deflection off defender Richmond Ankrah landed into the path of Lopes, who again knocked the ball into an empty net for his hat-trick.

Selangor came out the stronger side after the break, with Susak advancing to save a point-blank shot from Faisal in the 52nd minute.

Lopes, however, raised the volume in the stadium two minutes later when he picked up a pin-point pass from a hard-running Ramselaar on the right and lobbed the ball over an outstretched Kalamullah for Sailors’ goal number four.

The striker could have nabbed his fifth in the 68th minute after latching on to a cross from Diogo Costa but skied the ball in an one-on-one face-off with Kalamullah.

Faisal pulled one back for Selangor five minutes later when he ran down the left flank and fired a shot from inside the area that crashed against the underside of the bar and behind Susak but that was to be it.

Selangor will hope to fare better against Indonesia’s Persib Bandung on October 23 while Sailors play Bangkok United on the same day.