Lions end second as they defeat Korea U23

Singapore concluded their VFF Cup participation in style as they finished second, behind World Cup team DPR.Korea, and defeated the Korean Under-23 team 2-0 thanks to a double by Aleksandar Duric at the My Dinh stadium, Hanoi.

The Lions started off brightly, stringing passes confidently in midfield looking for openings in the Korean defence.

Masrezwan Masturi and Isa Halim looked impressive as they dictated play but as the half wore won, the Koreans gained confidence and created numerous chances which Hassan Sunny was able to thwart.

Aleksandar Duric opened the scoring with an audacious shot a minute before the half time whistle. Seeing the goalkeeper off his line, he let fly from 30 meters to grab his second goal of the tournament and to give the Lions the lead.

Duric smashed in his second after latching on to a Fazrul Nawaz cross to give the Lions a well deserved two goal cushion.

Despite a red card to Daniel Bennett, the Lions held on to claim their first win of the VFF tournament.
Lions’ coach Radojko Avramovic was a happy man after the game.

“The performance of our team really surprised me. We beat, in my opinion, the best team in the tournament. We played extremely well. The players were disciplined and focused in their tasks and they fully deserved the win against the Koreans.

“The team gave it all today and I am very happy with some of their performances. Duric scored two goals today and Hassan (Sunny) played very well and this team has the belief that they can play and win against strong opponents,” concluded Avramovic.

VFF Cup

Singapore 2-0 Korea U23

Scorer: Aleksandar Duric 44’, 58’

Singapore: Hassan Sunny, Daniel Bennett, Adrian Dhanaraj, Irwan Shah, Juma'at Jantan (Shi Jiayi 90’), Shahril Alias (Tengku Mushadad 69’), Noh Rahman, Masrezwan Masturi (Ridhwan Jamaludin 80’), Isa Halim, Aleksandar Duric (C), Fazrul Nawaz