By REDintern Ismail Farhan Anuar

Shah Alam Stadium, Saturday, December 1, 2012 — Singapore showed their mettle when they overcame a resilient Laos side 4-3 to seal a semi-final clash against the Philippines in the ASEAN Football Championship (AFF Suzuki Cup).

Shahril Ishak celebrated his century cap in style by scoring a brace to bring Singapore back on level terms after Laos took a shock two-goal lead after 40 minutes of play.

Singapore needed to win this match to be sure of qualifying for the semi-finals. A draw would have left their fate pending the outcome of the other Group B match between Malaysia and Indonesia.

Raddy sprung a very attacking line-up with Qiu Li, Fazrul Nawaz, Aleksandar Duric and Shahril Ishak all starting. After all, Laos has not beaten Singapore since 1970.

However, this affected the way Singapore defended the game. Laos were able to control the midfield with ease; evidenced by the 15 passes they strung to allow Khampheng Sayavutthi to tap the ball into an empty net for a 1-0 lead.

Singapore looked likely to equalize when Duric had the goal at his mercy but somehow the legendary marksman missed an open goal. It probably was not something Duric would like to remember from this tournament.

Things started to look worse for Singapore when Keoviengphet Liththideth scored a brilliant second goal, dancing his way in the penalty box to give the Laotians a shocking two-goal lead.

Fortunately, Singapore can always depend on Shahril Ishak to come up with the goods. The inspirational captain sneaked in behind the defence to give Singapore a 2-1 scoreline at the stroke of half-time.

As things stood, Indonesia and Malaysia looked set to go through at that stage with Malaysia taking a 2-0 lead at the break in the other game.

Singapore came out in the second half with full of purpose and intent. They needed to at least score one goal to stand a chance of qualifying, and Shahril did just that in the 53rd minute after some brilliant samba magic in the Laos penalty box. It was a stunning goal, befitting of the occasion.

Khairul Amri then made it 3-2 with a stunning free kick to give Singapore the lead for the first time in the match, and Fazrul headed in the fourth goal for Singapore after beating the offside trap. Laos seemed to have given up at that stage.

Toward the end of the match, the referee awarded a soft penalty to Laos and Khampheng needed no invitation to score his brace and take his goal tally in the tournament to three. However, that did not seem enough of a catalyst to drive Laos into a comeback, and the match petered out for Singapore win comfortably by a 4-3 margin.

With Malaysia beating Indonesia 2-0 at Bukit Jalil Stadium, it was Singapore who qualified as group winners to face Philippines and Malaysia will face Thailand in the semi-finals.

Singapore’s semi-final match against Philippines will be on Saturday, December 8th. The return leg will be played on December 12th at the Jalan Besar Stadium.