SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): The Lions’ hopes of reaching their first Asean Hyundai Cup final in 14 years hang by a thread after losing 3-1 to seven-time champions Thailand in the first leg of their semi-final clash at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Aug 15.
Singapore coach Gavin Lee said the biggest disappointment was that they could not put in a performance and get a result that was worthy of the fan support, adding: “They kept singing, cheering and pushing us, and the boys kept going because of that.
“We spoke about it in the dressing room – if the fans didn’t give up on us, we cannot give up on ourselves. Ultimately, we reduced the deficit by one, and with this group that we have, anything is possible.
“Thailand always have the quality, but we will hold our hands up and say we put ourselves in quite a few unnecessarily difficult moments and made it easy for them. And when they have players of that quality, yeah, they will punish you.”
But the 35-year-old believes his players will want to bounce back, saying: “Knowing the boys, they are kicking themselves, but they will recover as best as they can, and they will want to right the wrong.”
Thailand coach Anthony Hudson, who exchanged heated words with the Singapore bench post-match, gave credit to the Lions for being difficult opponents that restricted them to 28 per cent possession but warned that his team are capable of playing better.
“We could have scored one or two more goals and that was the disappointing part. But in semi-finals and finals, it’s about winning the game, recovering, getting to Bangkok, and putting in an even bigger performance.”
The hosts made three changes to the starting line-up for the 1-1 draw against Indonesia on Aug 7, as Irfan Fandi, Kyoga Nakamura and Shawal Anuar came in for Hami Syahin, the suspended Song Ui-young and Ilhan Fandi.
While they made a confident start to the match, they were soon deflated by Teerasak Poeiphimai who neatly tucked a 14th-minute shot into the bottom corner after Nakamura lost possession in his half, before the Thai forward was left unmarked to plant a header past Izwan Mahbud 12 minutes later.
Lee’s men had the chance to reduce the arrears when the video assistant referee spotted Yotsakorn Burapha’s push on Shawal after a long throw-in from Lionel Tan wreaked havoc in the Thailand box, but Kampol Pathomakkakul dived to his right to thwart the Singapore forward’s 35th-minute penalty kick.
The visitors, who made six changes to the first XI that beat Myanmar 2-0 on Aug 8, then had the luxury of replacing their goalscorer at the end of the first half with Patrik Gustavsson, and the Swedish-born attacker outsprinted Tan to set up Seksan Ratree for their third goal five minutes after the restart.
Second-half substitute Ilhan then gave the Lions a glimmer of hope when he bent his shot in off the post in the 84th minute for his fourth goal of the tournament – and the first that the Thais have conceded in four competitive matches – as the home crowd found its voice again.
Nevertheless, world No. 148 Singapore, who won the last of their four titles in 2012 by beating Thailand 3-2 on aggregate, will be heavy underdogs when they travel to Bangkok to play the second leg at the Rajamangala Stadium on Aug 18.
Despite calling up a squad that are far from their best, the 94th-ranked War Elephants have looked solid all tournament, winning their fifth game in a row.
Even though Singapore beat Thailand in the 2007 and 2012 finals in their two encounters in the knockout rounds, teams have come from behind to win after losing the first leg on only five occasions since two-legged knockout matches were introduced in the 2004 edition.
But no team have done so from a two-goal deficit.
In this first-leg match, the hosts pressed high and hard and showed positive intentions in front of 5,358 spectators that included Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and his spouse Jane Ittogi.
But individual errors started creeping in, and it was a matter of time before they were punished by a team of Thailand’s quality. The final scoreline hardly flattered the winners as they had other big chances denied by Izwan.
The defeat is Singapore’s first in nine competitive matches under Lee, who took over from Tsutomu Ogura in June 2025.
Interest in the Lions has spiked following the team’s resurgence as they showed fighting spirit to secure maiden Asian Cup qualification for the January 2027 showpiece in November 2025.
They also made it to the last four of the ASEAN Championship semi-finals by holding defending champions and world No. 99 Vietnam 0-0 and 118th-ranked Indonesia 1-1 in the group stage.
More than 4,000 of the home allocation tickets for this first-leg semi-final were sold out in seven minutes when sales opened on Aug 12, and scalpers were seen reselling a pair of Category 1 tickets worth around $100 for as much as $2,500 on online marketplaces.
The team that progresses from this semi-final will meet the winners of the other semi-final between Vietnam and Malaysia, with the first leg in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 16, followed by the second leg in Hanoi three days later. -- The Straits Times/ANN
