Singapore Football

Lions optimistic ahead of Asian Cup qualifiers after two straight victories in Tri-Nations series. . Read more at straitstimes.com.

Safuwan agreed and said: “Hopefully we will know who the new coach is soon. Some of us are in our 30s, and we feel this is the best time (for us to qualify for the Asian Cup). they responded really well over these two games and I am proud of their performances.” The new coach is unlikely to get any official international matches to get to know his players better, and it is unclear if he will carry on where former coaches Tatsuma Yoshida and Nazri left off or impose his own ideas, which will obviously take time to get used to. Credit has to go to Nazri and his backroom staff for getting their tactics right and the team motivated to keep up the feel-good factor stemming from last year’s Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup campaign. It is also worth noting that the Philippines, full of foreign-born and foreign-based players, had beaten Tajikistan twice to qualify for the 2019 Asian Cup. They also had one win and one loss against Kyrgyzstan in 2016 and 2019 respectively.