Singapore newspaper tells the truth about the home team's strength compared to the Vietnamese team

(Dan Tri) - The Straits Times admitted that the Singapore team was weaker than the Vietnam team. They emphasized that this was an unequal match.

At 8:00 p.m. today (December 26), the Vietnamese team will face Singapore in the first leg of the AFF Cup 2024 semi-final at Jalan Besar Stadium. Before this match, the Singaporean press highly appreciated the Vietnamese team.

Báo Singapore nói lên sự thật về sức mạnh của đội nhà so với tuyển Việt Nam - 1 — The Straits Times newspaper said that the match between the Vietnamese and Singaporean teams was not evenly matched (Photo: Minh Quan).

The Straits Times admitted that the Singapore team was inferior to the Vietnam team. They emphasized that this was an unequal match. Singapore's leading newspaper wrote: "In theory, the match between Singapore and the Vietnamese team is not equal. We are not the opponents of the "Golden Dragons". The Vietnamese team is a strong candidate for the AFF Cup championship. They have gathered 26 best players to participate in the tournament, including naturalized striker Nguyen Xuan Son, who recently scored 2 goals and had 2 assists to help the home team win 5-0 against Myanmar. Meanwhile, Singapore is missing many key faces such as goalkeeper Hassan Sunny (retired), the three Fandi brothers Irfan, Ikhsan and Ilhan (not allowed to return to training by the club), midfielders Jacob Mahler (injured) and Song Ui Young (absent for family reasons). In fact, before the tournament, Singapore was not expected to reach the semi-finals. Coach Tsutomu Ogura's team also only had unconvincing victories against Cambodia and Timor Leste in the group stage. The team advanced after a draw same difficulty before Malaysia".

Báo Singapore nói lên sự thật về sức mạnh của đội nhà so với tuyển Việt Nam - 2 — The Singapore team has gone 26 years without winning against the Vietnam team (Photo: Straits Times).

The Straits Times newspaper cited sad statistics for Singapore: "The Singapore team has not been able to defeat the Vietnam team since the 1998 Tiger Cup final. Currently, the team in the Lion Island is only ranked 160th in the world , far behind the Vietnam team at 114th place. If they want to win a ticket to the final, Singapore needs to end a streak of 14 consecutive matches without a win against the Vietnam team. Instead of being afraid, coach Tsutomu Ogura wants to solve the real puzzle. How can the Singapore team win against the Vietnam team after 26 long years? The Japanese coach wants to write a new page in history for the Singapore team." According to records, the home team only issued 70 tickets for fans to enter the stadium in this match. That number is much lower than expected (300 tickets). This somewhat affected coach Kim Sang Sik's team when we were completely outnumbered in the number of fans in the stands.