SINGAPORE: Singapore coach Gavin Lee admitted his team was complicit in their 3-1 loss to Thailand in the first leg of their Asean Hyundai Cup 2026 semi-final on Saturday as the Lions gave themselves an uphill task to advance to their first regional final since 2012.
Ilhan Fandi’s 84th minute strike restored Singaporean hopes for the second leg at Rajamangala Stadium on Tuesday, the forward reducing the deficit after Teerasak Poeiphimai’s double and a second-half goal from Seksan Ratree put Thailand in control.
“Thailand always has quality,” said Lee. “But I think we will hold our hands up and say we put ourselves in quite a few unnecessarily difficult moments and kind of made it easy for them. And then when you have got players of that quality they definitely punish you.
“We already knew that coming into this journey there would always be a bump in the road. And this is the first bump that we kind of faced. And now the question is, how do we deal with ourselves? How do we overcome this bump and continue going?
“But knowing the boys, they will go again, they will recover as good as they can, and they want to go and right the wrongs on their terms and choosing.”
Teerasak had put Thailand in front in the 14th minute after the visitors dispossessed their hosts inside the Singapore half and, 12 minutes later, the Port FC striker doubled the advantage when slack defending allowed him to head unopposed past Izwan Mahbud.
Shawal Anuar’s penalty was saved by Kampon Phatomakkakul 10 minutes before the interval to add to Singapore’s woes before a slick counterattacking move in the 51st minute saw Seksan add a third.
But, with their chances fading, substitute Ilhan curled his effort in via the inside of the post to restore some hope for Lee’s side ahead of the second leg.
“I think the biggest disappointment for me and for us is that we couldn't put in a performance and result that was worthy of the fan support tonight,” Lee said of the boisterous sell-out Jalan Besar Stadium crowd.
“They were amazing. Even towards the end, they kept singing, kept cheering, kept pushing us. And I think that the boys just kept going because of that.
“And then after full-time, the scenes that we all saw, so we take a lot of heart in that. And then we spoke in the changing room after; if the fans didn't give up on us, we cannot give up on ourselves.
“So ultimately we reduced the deficit by one. And with this group, with this team that we have, anything is possible when we go to Bangkok on Tuesday.”
