Contributed by reader Shawn

A disappointing crowd turned up for the game and sad to say, most of them were actually China's fans.

Just minutes after the referee's whistle, Singapore had managed to get 1-0 ahead of their opponent after Alam Shah scored a header due to a set-piece corner kick.

The match progressed on with a few attacking opportunities for China. True enough, their hopes of equalising came true before half-time. With a good header into the net, China had managed to bring the game into a draw at half-time.

Second half kicked start with Singapore making two substitutions – Noh Rahman & Dickson came on to boost the attacking opportunities for Singapore. The game plan totally changed when both players were brought on and they created chances for Singapore to score.

This forced China into making five substitutions of their own to bring on some key players as they were afraid that Singapore might score another goal.

However, luck was not on our side with Duric missing the 1-on-1 situation, which was the best chance of the game.

In the second half though, Singapore’s defense improved a lot and our goalkeeper Hassan Sunny did a fantastic job saving all the shots by China's players.

Nonetheless, the referee decisions were poor ! He seemed to not reward Singapore with deserved free kicks, generating lots of reaction from Singaporean fans in the grandstand.

At the final whistle, the game went to a penalty shootout and Singapore lost 4-3.

I am quite happy with the Lions performance today at the match. Although we lost the penalty shootout, we proved our ability to hold China to a draw at full-time without some of our key players like Mustafic Fahrudin and Shi Jiayi.

To be fair, the Singapore Lions deserved a well pat on their back 😀