First international win for Ogura as Singapore come from behind to beat Myanmar 3-2 in football friendly

SINGAPORE: Tsutomu Ogura secured his first international win as Lions coach on Thursday (Nov 14) as Singapore left it late to beat Myanmar 3-2 in an international friendly at the National Stadium.
Farhan Zulkifli put an experimental Singapore side in front in the fifth minute before two quick second-half goals from Ye Yint Aung and Thiha Zaw swung momentum in favour of Myanmar.
But the hosts edged out the visitors with late strikes from substitutes Shawal Anuar and Naqiuddin Eunos.
In front of a paltry crowd of 6,061, it was the Lions who dominated procession from the back early on.
Excellent work down the right by Nazrul Nazari saw the fullback deliver a cross which was bundled in by Farhan for his first international goal.
Myanmar struggled to carve out clear-cut chances of their own, but registered their first shot on target several minutes later which was pushed away by Syazwan Buhari.
With Farhan and Glenn Kweh causing problems down the flanks, Singapore came close to doubling their lead minutes before half-time.
A cross from debutant Kyoga Nakamura found Farhan but he contrived to fire just wide.
It was Myanmar who came rushing out of the blocks in the second half as Syazwan spilled a low shot for a grateful Aung to level things up in the 47th minute.
Buoyed by the goal, Myanmar netted another as Thiha Zaw had the freedom of the penalty box to knock a free header into the back of the net.
Ranked 165th, three places below Singapore in the FIFA world rankings, Myanmar are led by former international Myo Hlaing Win.
Spurred into action, the Lions kept plugging away and subsitute Shawal hammered home the equaliser from a Faris Ramli knockdown with about five minutes left on the clock.
Less than 60 seconds later, Faris was the architect once again as he squared the ball from the left for Naqiuddin to curl in a strike off the Myanmar goalkeeper.
Ogura, a former assistant coach of the Japanese national football team, was announced as the new Singapore head coach in February.
The 58-year-old led the Lions to a 2-2 home draw against China in his first match in charge, with Singapore mounting a comeback from two goals down.
In the subsequent World Cup Asian qualifying matches, Singapore lost 1-4 to China, 7-0 to South Korea and 3-1 to Thailand.
The Lions ended their group-stage campaign with a solitary point – after no wins, a draw and five losses.
As part of the team’s preparations for the Mitsubishi Electric Cup – popularly known as the AFF Championships – which will be held from Dec 8 to Jan 5, the Lions played two home training matches in September.
The games against BG Tampines Rovers and Malaysia’s Johor Darul Ta’zim were played behind closed doors.
In a training camp in Japan last month, Singapore faced three J1 League sides.
They lost 4-0 to FC Tokyo before beating Tokyo Verdy 2-1. The Lions then were hammered 7-1 in their final match by Yokohama F Marinos.
Singapore last faced Myanmar at the last edition of the AFF Championships in 2022, with the Lions also winning by the same scoreline.
The Lions will face Chinese Taipei in another friendly next Monday.