Football: Qiu sparks rout as Singapore beat Maldives
SINGAPORE: There were no long balls punted hopefully into the box, no defensive lapses, no toothlessness in front of a goal.
Indeed, there was no need for the Lions to even get out of second gear at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Tuesday night, where they beat the Maldives 4-0.
This was the first international fixture for Singapore since December's ill-fated AFF Suzuki Cup campaign that prompted a revamp of Radojko Avramovic's squad. And despite the gulf in standards between the sides last night, the signs were promising.
Led by Qiu Li, Shahdan Sulaiman and Shi Jiayi, the Lions got their pass-and-move groove on, at least in the first half, which saw three goals before Avramovic rung the changes.
Qiu (13th minute penalty, 19th), Shi (30th) and the evergreen Aleksandar Duric (48th) found the net for Singapore, but there were good showings all over the park.
Skipper Hariss Harun, who normally plays in midfield, was sturdy in central defence, Isa Halim and Ismail Yunos turned in assured performances, while the nine substitutes sent on gave decent accounts of themselves.
Said a pleased Avramovic after the game: "We have tried to play like this for a long time... but sometimes players forget what we want to do when we go on the field. This is the first game after six months and you can't expect everything, but I was happy with the first half performance. We saw many of the good football elements that we are trying to build in this team, there was good passing, good movement and a lot of chances created that way."
Avramovic singled out Shi and Shahdan for their inventive attacking play, along with the 30-year-old Qiu, whom the coach said can turn a game with a moment of brilliance.
Thanks With Courtesy To Source:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/s...79/1/.html
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