SINGAPORE - Tampines Rovers were knocked out of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup on Wednesday (Sept 21) in the quarter-final stage.

Trailing 1-0 from the first leg match against Indian champions Bengaluru FC, the Stags were eliminated after a 0-0 draw at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

Despite their best efforts and furious attacks on goal to break the deadlock, the second leg ended goalless and saw Bengaluru advance on aggregate.

Stags coach Akbar Nawas said: "We tried our best. The players did play their hearts out and I'm actually pleased with how they went all the way to try to get a goal.

"If you create that many chances but you're not clinical enough in the box, what can you do?"

The last time a local team made it to the AFC Cup semi-finals was back in 2004, when Home United and Geylang International were both knocked out in the last four.

Bengaluru will now take reigning AFC Cup champions Johor Darul Takzim next week in Malaysia's Larkin Stadium for the semi-final first leg.