27-3-2024 (SINGAPORE) The Singapore national football team put up a valiant display against China in their crunch World Cup qualifying clash, but a debatable penalty decision and some sloppy defending ultimately conspired to hand the hosts a 4-1 victory in Tianjin.
Playing in front of a raucous crowd of 42,977, the Lions matched their higher-ranked opponents for large periods of an engrossing Group C encounter. However, their hopes of securing a precious away point were dashed by a second-half spot-kick that shifted momentum decisively in China’s favor.
Just five days earlier in the reverse fixture, the 156th-ranked Singapore had shown remarkable fighting spirit to twice rally from behind and earn a hard-fought 2-2 draw on home soil. This time around, controversy would again shape the narrative.
With the scores locked at 1-1 on the hour mark, Emirati referee Omar Mohamed Al-Ali made the contentious call to penalize Jacob Mahler for an alleged foul on Gao Zhunyi from a free-kick. Brazil-born winger Fei Nanduo duly dispatched the resulting penalty to nudge China ahead.
The complexion of the match took another twist when Li Yuanyi was given his marching orders in the 79th minute for a reckless challenge on substitute Joel Chew. However, Singapore’s hopes of capitalizing on the numerical advantage were cruelly extinguished when the stricken Chew was unable to continue – with boss Tsutomu Ogura having already exhausted his allotted changes.
In the frenetic closing stages, the shorthanded Lions pushed bodies forward in search of an equalizer but were ruthlessly punished on the counter. Captain Wu Lei broke clear to make it 3-1 in the 85th minute before substitute Wei Shihao applied the final flourish with a simple close-range finish five minutes later.
The defeat leaves Singapore rooted to the bottom of Group C with just a solitary point from four matches played. While their World Cup dream remains mathematically alive, they face an uphill task to upset the group’s established order when qualifying resumes in June.
In his post-match address, a crestfallen Ogura rued the decisive moments that had swung the pendulum firmly in China’s favor.
“When it was 11 against 11, it was quite a good game,” the Japanese tactician lamented. “Then, we had to play with 10 men when we did not need to because our player had a serious injury and we had to play with 10. When it was 10 versus 10, the game changed.”
As Chew was stretchered off to receive treatment for a suspected fracture, Singapore’s attention will now turn to reigniting their improbable World Cup charge when they host South Korea and travel to Thailand in successive June qualifiers.
