Singapore: The two most successful nations in ASEAN Championship history, Thailand and Singapore are all set to clash in a top-of-the-table Group A meeting at the National Stadium in Singapore on Tuesday.
Both teams will come into this match on the back of a 100% record so far, winning their first two group matches meaning a win for either side will confirm their passage to the semi-finals of this year’s tournament.
Singapore began with a gritty 2-1 win against Cambodia with Faris Ramli and Shawal Anuar scoring the goals, before following that up with a 3-0 success in Hanoi against Timor-Leste on Saturday with all three goals coming in the final quarter of the match.
Kyoga Nakamura converted a penalty for his first goal in national team colours while Shawal added two more from close range to eventually make it a comfortable outing for the Lions.
In their previous home match against Cambodia, the Lions’ most successful head coach of all time Raddy Avramovic was in attendance alongside legendary players like Shahril Ishak, Aleksandar Duric, Baihakki Khaizan and Lionel Lewis to show their support for the team.
Under Raddy, Singapore won three ASEAN Championship titles, which included wins against Thailand twice in the final in 2007 and 2012. Now under the guidance of Japanese Tsutomu Ogura, Singapore will take inspiration from their past as the current crop aims to bring back their glory days.
Their opponents, Thailand have won both their matches without conceding any goal putting ten goals without reply past Timor-Leste in their opener before a narrow 1-0 win courtesy of Patrik Gustavsson against another former champion, Malaysia on Saturday.
The Thai side made the short trip to Singapore on Monday and will be without the services of Ben Davis, the scorer of two goals against Timor-Leste, for this match after the 24-year-old had defaulted his national service whilst residing in Singapore.
Two of the teams’ biggest stars, Supachok Sarachat and Ekanit Panya are yet to feature in the tournament but were seen in Monday’s training session as head coach Masatada Ishii keeps his cards close to his chest.
Singapore haven’t beaten Thailand since that 2012 ASEAN Championship final, with the Thais also recently running out 3-1 winners in both their FIFA World Cup Qualifiers matches and now it remains to be seen if the Lions can inflict a defeat on the War Elephants after a long drought of 12 years.
Singapore vs Thailand
Venue: National Stadium, Singapore
Kick-off: 17 December, 8:30 PM (Local Time)
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