Sailor’s held Geylang to a 1-0 win in their previous fixture which drew a couple of tensions from the atmosphere of the stadium, and once again the Eagles have proven not to disappoint and back down from a fight that they have got what it takes to give Sailors yet another exciting showdown.
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Background of the game
It was almost a game of loose ends as both the teams were hungry for the first goal. The Eagle’s target man, Žužul, was once again Sailor’s worst nightmare as he was almost unstoppable whenever the ball was delivered to him, to a point where Sailor’s had to activate a three men defence on him from alternate directions.
“Playing against a very young side and you know, playing a very small squad, I think he [Žužul] has been excellent for us. For me, he needs more support in the attack you know. He is alone up there but for me, he has done well, and he works very hard for the team and that is the thing that I like about Šime. He keeps on working and running and whether he scores or does not score, he still works for the team. He is a team player so that is nice to see,” as head coach Noor Ali commends his target man, Žužul.
Sailors kept pushing in search for their first goal, almost succeeded in the 26th minute of the game when Shahdan’s corner found Pedro in the box as he headed it to the far post to an open Diego who was not composed enough to slot in for one of their first clear chances on goal.
Geylang was struck by an unfavourable decision during the 36th minute of the game where Hazzuwan’s shot on goal was denied by the referee as it was ruled offside. The goal was given initially by the referee, but tensions flared from both sides, including the fans. The fourth official was in the midst of both benches on his left and right protesting rights according to their favours. The decision was finally made, and the goal was disallowed.
Noor Ali chipped in, “I mean if you make a decision, I don’t think you can turn around the decision based on listening to any other referee, so I don’t know whether who makes the call at this point in time you know, but again he has given the goal, but I don’t know why he turned it away. For me, I do not want to talk about the incident because there is no point at this point in time because they cannot change everything. I don’t know, maybe I will receive an apology soon [laughs]”.
Not long after that setback, Geylang managed to clutch their goal scoring opportunity as a penalty was awarded to them, and it was none other than Šime to secure it home for the Eagles. A nicely cool and calm penalty saw the Croatian slotting it past Hassan Sunny in the bottom left corner of the goal. 1-0 to Geylang.
Despite conceding the goal, Sailor’s tenacity was unveiling as they got on the attack more, hungry for that equaliser and it could only come as late towards the closure of the first half. It was the man of the moment, Shahdan, who took a shot from outside the box, one which was too hard and powerful for skipper Zaiful Nizam to keep it out. 1-1 at half time.
“For us, we have to be strong one versus one with the quality of players that they have. Instead of working hard, I think we have to lessen the mistakes that happen in the game. I think basically the goal they scored, we lost the ball in the midfield and that is what happened but i think we cut off a lot of depth in the second half you know? We know that at a certain point of the game we would be put under a lot of pressure with LCS. I thought the boys did brilliantly even when we changed the formation a bit, it was nice to see,” as Noor Ali says in his first half analysis.
Lion City Sailors have currently been out of form as evident from the previous game as well, where they faced Hougang and ended up conceding first and drawing the game with a full-time score of 1-1. They had to get on the attack more for the last 45 minutes of this game in order to maintain a good run in the league, as Kim Do-Hoon prepared his half-time preparation talk with his team.
As the second half commenced, Sailors got on the attack more but were still unlucky to convert several of their chances, as the Eagle's custodian Zaiful stepped up his game to deny the opposition off their chances.
The Eagles found the break when Khairul Hairie took the ball on his own and attempted a curler right at the edge of the box in the 55th minute of the game, but it just missed by inches. The game ended with a full-time score of 1-1.
“It was quite entertaining. It is good to see this kind of game happening in the SPL. We know what kind of team they have. I think for us, we want to stay positive and enjoy the football we play and I think we took the game into them but we also know that with the players we have on the bench, we are just going to take a bit of a toll on the team you know? I thought throughout the 90 minutes, the players were fantastic,” as Noor Ali mentioned about what he thought about the game.
The Eagles will be playing Hougang in their next fixture of the Singapore Premier League and Noor Ali thinks his boys have got what it takes to match up against the Cheetahs.
“We have to take one game at a time. Hougang is another quality side with very good players. You know playing at Hougang stadium is not easy, but I think like I say we have to stay positive. It has been a good result for us and we would love to have kept a clean sheet today but it does not happen. It is nice to see that we are doing better in the last four games. Hopefully we definitely want a good result against Hougang but we know what they have and we got to plan it rightly approaching the game”.
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