FILI STEAL A POINT FROM LIONS

With the Lions expected to waltz over the Philippines, the end result was a fair reflection of a game in which the latter did not give up and fought to the end despite trailing by an Aleksandr Duric’s goal in the 65th minute.

And their tenacity and composure were repaid when Fili nailed the all-important equaliser through Chris Greatwich deep in injury time.

“We will be celebrating somewhat even though we still have two tough games against Vietnam and then Myanmar to play for. But the boys thoroughly deserved it,” said Simon McMenemy, the chief coach of the Philippines.

“They worked hard knowing what they were up against especially in the first half when Singapore had three strikers upfront. The commitment of the boys is great.”

Singapore were the early aggressor when they had a double attempt from Jumaat Jantan and Fazru Nawaz stopped by the lanky Neil Etheridge while several minutes later, Duric’s through pass was met with a feeble attempt from Mohd Noh Alam Shah.

With the Philippines defence working overtime, the chance they create for the frontline were far and in between although Philip Younghusband did get a shot in on 30minutes which was blocked by keeper Hassan Sunny.

In the 41st minute, Singapore came the closest yet but Shahdan Sulaiman’s chip over Etheridge was cleared on the line by Anton Rosario.

The stalemate at the half forced Singapore to come out into the second more determined and they finally scored the lead in the 65th minute when Duric made good off a header from Noh Alam Shah cross.

The pace of the game dropped somewhat after that as Singapore seem to be satisfied with protecting their goal although the several yellow cards on a trot underlined the level of competitiveness.

But just as the Lions thought that they had the points in the bag, some lackadaisical defending later saw Chrisopher Greatwich slamming home a low cross from James Younghusband.

“You cannot finish a game like that,” fired Singapore chief coach Radojko Avramovic.
“I’m just disappointed that we did not finish the chances we had. Some of the players took just too long to score and their hesitance allowed the Philippines defence to recover.”

SINGAPORE
Hassan Sunny, Baihakki Khaizan, Mohamed Noh Rahman, Mohd Noh Alam Shah (Mohd Khairul Amri Kamal 68th), Aleksandr Duric, Fazrul Nawaz Hameed (Mohd Ridhuan Muhammad 46th), Mustafic Fahrudin (Mohd Noh Rahman 89th), Mark Bennett, Mohd Shahril Ishak, Shahdan Sulaiman, Jumaat Jantan.

PHILIPPINES
Neil Etheridge, Robert Gier, Anton Rosario, James Younghusband, Alexander Borromeo, Emelio Caligdong (Roel Gener 84th), Jason de Jong, Christopher Greatwich, Ian Araneta (Joebel Bermejo 78th), Ray Jonsson.