By REDintern Ismail Farhan Anuar

Rizal Memorial Stadium, Saturday, December 8, 2012 — Singapore were held to a goalless draw by the Philippines in Manila despite dominating the entire game.

This result leaves the return leg at the Jalan Besar Stadium next Wednesday with all to play for, as Philippines will know that an away goal could make things very difficult for Singapore. Singapore will also be confident about beating the Azkals at their home ground in front of a sell-out stadium.

For this match, Shaiful Esah was declared fit while Shi Jiayi was not available due to personal reasons. Isa Halim slotted in to add more steel to Singapore’s defence.

Sticking to the modus operandi that has worked so well for Raddy’s team throughout the competition, Singapore used the direct approach and kept a very organized defence. Having Daniel Bennett and Shaiful Esah back in their full back positions gave Singapore some measure of confidence that was lacking in the Laos game.

Khairul Amri was especially lively throughout the games, constantly finding pockets of space in between the centre back and full backs to latch onto Izwan Mahbud’s powerful and long goal kicks.

It was from one of those long goal kicks that Singapore fashioned the first real chance of the game, with Amri breezing past his marker to put himself through on goal. Unfortunately, he could not sort out his feet with the awkward bounce and fired his shot too closely to Philippines goalkeeper Eduard Sacapano.

It was former Chelsea schoolboy Phil Younghusband’s turn to fire at goal, but Izwan dealt comfortably with his weak shot.

Singapore were comfortable in possession, with Safuwan and Baihakki putting in lion-hearted performances at the back, winning their aerial duels easily.

Singapore’s best chance of the game came to Shahril Ishak when he found the goal at his mercy after Duric’s cross-shot had beaten Sacapano. However, he could only toe-poke the ball into the side-netting.

Singapore was the team asking the real questions at the break. Philippines certainly did not look like they were playing at home.

Philippines looked much better in the second half, with the Younghusband brothers showing some lovely flicks to confound the Singapore defence. However, during those few times they managed to break through the Singapore defence, they found Izwan Mahbud alert and composed.

However, Izwan was scrambling across his goalpost when Mulders fired a swerving free kick on the 74th minute.

The second leg of the semi-final will be on Wednesday, December 12th, at the Jalan Besar Stadium. It will be shown live on MediaCorp Channel 5 at 7.55 p.m.