Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Shah Alam: Singapore booked their place in the semi-finals of the 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup after overturning a 2-0 deficit and defeat Laos 4-3 on Saturday to finish top of Group B on goal difference ahead of fellow 2015 AFC Asian Cup qualification participants Malaysia.
The Lions were a goal down with 21 minutes at the Shah Alam Stadium played when lively winger Soukaphone Vongchiengkham teed up Khampheng Sayavutthi for the opener before Keoviengpheth Lithideth doubled Laos' advantage in the 39th minute.
Singapore coach Raddy Avramovic didn't wait till the break to ring the changes and with a minute plus stoppage time with the first-half remaining replaced Qiu Li and Daniel Bennett with Khairul Amri and Shaiful Esah.
And the bold move paid off deep into stoppage-time when Shaiful played a short corner to Fahrudin Mustafic, whose chip found Shahril Ishak and the 28-year-old midfielder slotted the ball past Laos' substitute keeper Soukthavy Soundala, who came on after first-choice custodian Sengphachan Bounthisanh was injured in a crunching third-minute collision with Fazrul Nawaz.
Shahril scored his and Singapore's second seven minutes into the second-half before Khairul Amri turned the match in favour of the three-time ASEAN champions when he scored with a long-range free-kick in the 63rd minute.
Fazrul headed home number four from Shaiful's cross from the left two minutes later and although Khampheng made it 4-3 with an 81st minute penalty, awarded after Shaiful was adjudged to have committed a foul in the area, Singapore held on for the victory that set up a two-leg Suzuki Cup semi-final with the Philippines.
"Laos played exactly how we expected them to, pushing numbers up to surprise us," said Avramovic, revealing the reasons behind his double substitution just before the half-time break.
"To find goals we needed more balls to the far post so our forwards could get the second ball.
"We needed those crosses from Shaiful so we made the change because it had to be made."
Singapore are in 2015 AFC Asian Cup qualifying Group A alongside Jordan, Oman and Syria and will kick off their Australia 2015 qualification campaign on February 6 away to the Jordanians.