It is a true fact that we have lost out to the few thousands of Myanmar fans in vocal at the half-filled National Stadium, but we are just glad that the scoreboard speaks otherwise – Myanmar 2 Singapore 4!
Myanmar, in white started the game promisingly and not because of an offside call against them, they could have gone ahead as early as the second minute! In anyway, football fans did not wait long for goals to start flowing in. In the 15th minute, Sahil Sulaiman (no: 32) was hacked down outside the penalty box. Dead-ball specialist, Shaiful Esah (no: 3) took it with his trademark curve and scored with a wicked bounce in front of the goal to give Singapore the well-deserved 1-0 lead!
6 minutes later, Singapore’s Midfield Maestro, Shadan Sulaiman (no: 8) went down with a nasty injury after colliding with Khairul Amri (no: 19). His replacement, Zulfahmi Mohd Arifin (no: 23) came on and continued with the ball-stringing works with probably the best player of the night, Hariss Harun (no: 14). Effort paid off further in the 35th minute – Hariss volleyed home a beauty from just outside the penalty box to extend Singapore’s lead to 2-0!
Before the crowd was done with the second goal’s celebration, Singapore’s number-14 scored again! 4 minutes prior to half time, the Johor Darul Takzim’s Midfielder scored his second of the night, Singapore’s third with yet another great volley, but this time from his left from close range! That goal summed up the first half of what it seems to be an exciting night!
Former Singapore & current Myanmar’s head coach, Raddy threw in his trump card, Myanmar’s Golden Boy, Kiy Lin (no: 33) at half time hoping to turn the fortune around for the second half. The tactical change worked for Myanmar.
It became more obvious that it was a different Myanmar for the second half as they were coming back at the host nation very strongly. Striker, Kyaw Ko Ko (no: 10) nearly pulled one back for the team but his shot just went inches wide of the goal. Not long after, Myanmar finally scored through Kyaw Zayar Win (no: 7) after some decent effort put together by the team in the 55th minute!
Pressure building up at Singapore’s half, 5 minutes later, Safuwan Bahruddin (no.21) was penalized from bringing down a Myanmar player in the box and spot kick was given to Myanmar. Ko Ko made no mistake from the spot and presented all Singapore fans with a score line of 2-3 that certainly sent a shiver down every Singapore fan’s spine.
15 minutes before time, Defender Shaiful had his name on the score sheet again! It was another trademark free-kick of his deflected off a defender’s head and into the goal!
“Christmas came early for Singapore as they scored 4 easy goals tonight, “ said Myanmar’s head coach, Raddy. And what did Singapore’s head coach, Bernd Stange think about the 4 goals? He said, “A coach will never be disappointed with a 4-2 win against a strong team (Myanmar).”
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