Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Vientiane: Singapore made it two wins out of two under recently appointed national team coach Bernd Stange as the 2015 AFC Asian Cup qualifying Group A side defeated Laos 5-2 in an international friendly on Friday.
The four-time ASEAN champions went into the match at the new Laos National Stadium buoyed by a 2-0 friendly win over Myanmar and Friday’s friendly also provided former Iraq coach Stange an opportunity to test the strength of his squad ahead Singapore’s forthcoming Australia 2015 qualifier against Oman.
Indra Sahdan put the Lions 1-0 up after just six minutes before Hariss Harun doubled the visitors’ lead 20 minutes later with his first international goal.
Safuwan Baharudin struck four minutes from the interval gave Singapore a commanding 3-0 cushion only for Ketsada Souksavanh, who plays his club football in Thailand with Nong Khai, and Khonesavanh Sihavong to peg the Lions back with goals in the 48th and 62nd minutes respectively.
But Singapore regained the initiative in the last ten minutes and after debutant Gabriel Quak netted number four in the 82nd minute Hafiz Rahim sealed the win five minutes later.
“The most important thing in football is results, and we got what we wanted, 5-2 win away in Laos,” Today quoted Stange as saying after the match.
“It takes a little bit of time to adapt and we let in two goals, but compliments to the team how they came together in the end.
“The first and most important thing is to have a clear picture for the team against Oman, first position and second position.”
Singapore were using Friday’s friendly as part of their preparations for their second match in Group A of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, which sees Stange’s side host his former employers Oman at the Jalan Besar Stadium on August 14.