Omid Nazari then tried his luck from the edge of the area, before Carli de Murga saw his glancing header come back off the crossbar as the group leaders took complete control of the game.

The woodwork again came to the rescue of Shan United when they turned the ball over in the defensive third, allowing Marañon time on the edge of the area, but his curling effort cannoned back off the post, while Mahir Karic’s rebound was saved by Phone Thitsar Min.

Ott was the next player to have his effort denied by the woodwork as Ceres struggled to turn their dominance into goals.

The breakthrough finally came just before half time when Marañon ran at the Shan United defence, playing a nice one-two with Karic before sliding the ball past Phone Thitsar Min.

That lead was doubled when Zwe Thet Paing took down Ott just inside the penalty area, with Marañon thumping home the resulting penalty to give the visitors a 2-0 lead at the break.

Ceres’ dominance continued in the second half and a point blank save by Phone Thitsar Min denied Ott again.

The home side almost got back into the game with 25 minutes remaining, but the crossbar worked against them on this occasion as Htet Phyo Wai’s shot smashed back off the woodwork.

Ceres put the game out of reach five minutes later when Marañon secured his hat-trick with a tidy finish inside the area.

The visitors weren’t content with that and continued pushing for more goals, with a header from de Murga and a nice strike from substitute OJ Porteria rounding out the comfortable 5-0 win to secure their passage from the group stage for the fourth year in a row.

With their progression secured, Ceres return home to take on Becamex Binh Duong in their final group stage match, while Shan United will be hoping they can get their first points of the campaign when they travel to take on Persija Jakarta.