Safuwan (#21) sees his shot hit the back of the Johor Darul Takzim net to make it 1–1 late in the game. (Photo © Alfie Lee/FAS. Used with permission)
Jalan Besar Stadium, Saturday, June 22, 2013 — The Singapore LionsXII needed a late 82nd equaliser by Safuwan Baharudin to salvage a 1–1 draw with Johor Darul Takzim in front of a capacity crowd of 7,650.
The draw keeps the LionsXII top of the table with a four-point lead over Johor.
A poor first half by the LionsXII saw Johor take an early lead in the 9th minute through Leonel Nunez who crept between Shakir Hamzah and goalkeeper Izwan Mahdud to score the opening goal.
Apart from a Shahril Ishak free kick that was tipped over, the LionsXII had few other chances of note.
The LionsXII performed much better in the second half and were finally rewarded with the late equaliser by Safuwan who cracked home a shot after a free kick spilled loose in the box.
“We did start off slowly, Johor were positive from the start – moving up high in the pitch and pushing up attackers to get goals. They got in through a mix-up from us, but we were slowly getting into the game late in the first half,” LionsXII head coach V Sundramoorthy was quoted as saying on the official LionsXII website.
“We made some adjustments and the second half was all about us – we kept pressing and running, we could have even scored the second goal in the dying minutes,” added Sundram.
Faris Ramli was singled out the coach for his performance.
“Faris (Ramli) is a player with great potential,” said Sundram.
“Whenever he has the ball, he takes on defenders – this is something not many Singaporean players can do. Meanwhile Shahfiq were great with his passes and Nizam could have scored in the last minute.”
The LionsXII will next play Perak FA away on Tuesday, June 25, before returning to face Felda United for their final home game of the season on Tuesday, July 2.
Final Result
LionsXII 1 Johor Darul Takzim 1
Scorers
LionsXII
(Safuwan Baharudin (82′) – 1 goal
Johor Darul Takzim
Leonel Nunez (9′) – 1 goal
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