Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, Macarthur’s task became all but insurmountable with fewer than two minutes on the clock when Al Ghassani caught out the home side with a clinical finish to add to their overall advantage.

Picha Autra swept the ball forward from deep inside his own half and allowed Al Ghassani to run at the Macarthur defence and, with Tomislav Uskok backing off, the Omani forward thumped a right foot shot into the bottom corner of Filip Kurto’s goal.

Luke Vickery hit a weak effort straight at Patiwat Khammai in the 20th minute after a cleverly worked Luke Brattan free-kick as Macarthur fought back while four minutes later Vickery was in position again to threaten, only to fire his shot high over the crossbar.

Patiwat denied Chris Ikonomidis from close range and Brattan saw a free-kick blocked before Al Ghassani hit his second of the evening, killing the contest in the 33rd minute.

Picha again was the architect, driving through the Macarthur midfielder before feeding his teammate on the left and he stepped onto his right foot to bend a fine finish beyond the flat-footed Kurto.

Scott cut the deficit in the 41st minute with a thunderous strike from 25 yards that Patiwat was unable to keep out and, six minutes into the second half, the Bangkok United goalkeeper dived to his right to keep out Ikonomidis’ attempt.

Talbot almost claimed a second for Macarthur with 15 minutes remaining when he cut in from the right to hit a left-foot shot from distance that beat Patiwat only to bounce back into play off the post.