MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Azkals paid for their sloppy defending in a crucial three-minute stretch as they absorbed a 2-1 loss to host Singapore in the AFF Suzuki Cup Wednesday night in Singapore.
Quickfire goals from Lions skipper Hariss Harun (61st) and Faris Ramli (63rd) proved enough to thwart the Azkals in their bid for a winning start in the Group A match played before 8,992 fans at the National Stadium.
The Pinoy booters mounted a spirited rally but only managed to pull one back with Amin Nazari netting their lone goal off a cross by Kevin Ingreso in the 69th minute.
“It was not the result we were expecting,” said Azkals coach Stewart Hall, whose charges now face a must-win in succeeding matches against Timor Leste, Thailand and Myanmar in the road to the semifinals.
“If you look at it, we’ve got beaten in three minutes. We had a crazy, silly three minutes and threw away 87 minutes of hard work. But that’s football, you have to learn from that.”
The Azkals will try to bounce back tomorrow against lightweight Timor Leste, which dropped to 0-0-2 (win-draw-loss) via a 2-0 setback to Myanmar (0-1-1).
The Lions, who opened the bubble tournament with a 3-0 shutout of Myanmar last Dec. 5, solidified their hold of the group lead with six points ahead of the Thais (three points on 1-0-0).