Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Bangkok: Suksan Mungpao struck two of Thailand’s three first-half goals as the AFC U-19 Championship 2016 qualifying Group H hosts opened their campaign on Wednesday with a 3-0 win over Chinese Taipei, while Singapore picked up their first three points after handing the Northern Mariana Islands their second 10-0 defeat.
Anon Amornlertsak opened the scoring with 21 minutes at the SCG Stadium played before Suksan scored on the half-hour mark and then added a second six minutes later to complete the scoring in Wednesday’s second Group H fixture after Singapore had matched Chinese Taipei’s Match Day 1 result against the Northern Mariana Islands.
Singapore, who twice came from behind before conceding three times in the final ten minutes, to go down 6-2 to Korea Republic in their Group H opener, took a 10th minute lead through Muhammad Hami Syahin bin Said before the midfielder doubled Singapore’s advantage in the 36th minute with his third of the qualifiers after scoring the island republic’s first in Monday’s loss to the South Koreans.
Defender Justin Hui struck three minutes later as Singapore took a 3-0 lead at the interval before the ASEAN side scored seven times after the interval, with five of the goals coming in the last ten minutes.
Joshua Pereira made it 4-0 in the 56th minute from the penalty spot before substitute Irfan Fandi, who came on ten minutes into the second half to replace Muhammad Hami, scored number five just after the hour mark and then consigned the Northern Mariana Islands to their second successive double-digit defeat with Singapore’s tenth two minutes into stoppage time after Ariyan Malik (82nd), Krathik Raj (83rd), skipper Gareth Low (87th) and Shah Zulkarnean (90th) got their names on the scoresheet.
Ten group winners and five best second-placed teams will qualify for the finals while hosts Bahrain received an automatic qualification (total 16 teams).
If Bahrain finish top of their qualifying group or one of the five second best-placed teams, the next (6th) second-placed team will qualify for the final competition.