MANILA – The Philippine men’s football team suffered a stinging 2-1 defeat to host Singapore at the start of the 2020 AFF Suzuki Cup on Wednesday night at the Singapore National Stadium.
From a scoreless opening half, the Azkals found themselves behind, 1-0, after Singapore team captain Harris Harun converted a header off a corner at the 62nd minute.
It was quickly doubled by the home team after two minutes. Winger Faris Ramli punched the ball past the defense of the Azkals from a nice cross by Zulqarnaen Suzliman.
After 15 minutes of action, the Azkals trimmed the deficit to 1-2. Midfielder Amin Nazari was able to head the ball towards the back of the net at the 69th minute from another corner.
Since then, the Azkals became aggressive with their offense. They chased the game-tying goal but the tight defense of the Singaporeans prevented the visitors from doing so.
Azkals’ substitute forward Angel Guirado had his last opportunity to tie the match. But he shot wide in the final minutes of regulation and had a header blocked by Singapore’s Hassan Sunny.
Azkals head coach Stewart Hall was left to rue Harun and Ramli goals during what he described as the “three crazy minutes” in the second half, which were totally unexpected.
“If you look at it, we’ve got beaten in three minutes. We had crazy, silly three minutes and threw away 87 minutes of hard work. But that’s football. You have to learn from that,” said Hall.
Singapore now occupies the top spot in Group A with six points after a fitting follow-up to its 3-0 win over Myanmar. Azkals is at fourth spot after playing their first game in the tournament.
The Philippines looks to recover from this close defeat this Saturday when it takes on Timor Leste. The kickoff is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. at the same venue./PN
