Brave Lions Suffer Late Heartbreaks

Vietnam net twice in added time to take a 2-0 lead in Asean C'ship semi-final

- David Lee

The Lions suffered two sickening stoppage-time blows on Boxing Day as they lost 2-0 to Vietnam in the first leg of the Asean Championship semi-finals at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Dec 26.

Post-match, Singapore coach Tsutomu Ogura felt his team were unlucky but needed to improve in terms of stamina, focus and consistency, after they conceded a debatable 101st-minute penalty, before what looked to be a 104th-minute knockout punch.

In the group stage, they also let in two goals in added time to lose 4-2 against defending champions Thailand, although they held on outstandingly to draw 0-0 in Malaysia to qualify for the last four.

The 58-year-old Japanese said: "Football is not only 90 minutes, I always tell the players. Football is 90 minutes plus injury time. In this kind of situation, we saw the difference between Singapore and Vietnam.

"Sometimes we are lucky, sometimes we are unlucky.

"This is football, we need luck, but we also need more hard work. Okay, we conceded an unfortunate penalty, but we didn't need to concede another goal, so this is our fault.

"But this game is finished. Today we made it difficult for Vietnam, and they beat us. It will be a difficult game in Hanoi too, so why can't we do the same against them?

We will now prepare for the 'second half' in Hanoi."

After a resolute display in regulation time, the match turned on a couple of controversial video assistant referee (VAR) decisions.

Following sustained pressure in the second half, Singapore had a penalty claim in the 80th minute rejected by the VAR and South Korean referee Kim Woo-sung after Ho Tan Tai looked to have hauled down Faris Ramli in the box.