Southeast Asian Superclasico
Singapore were supposed to catch their return flight last afternoon but instead they prepared them to face their familiar foes Malaysia for today's first semifinal of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup to be held at the Sylhet District Stadium.
Singapore, with one point in two outings, are the lucky team to have qualified for the last four by virtue of a better goal difference compared to pre-tournament favourites Bahrain, who suffered a 0-3 defeat to eventual group champions Thailand, and caught the return flight last afternoon instead of Singapore.
The football lovers are quite familiar with rivalries such as Argentina and Brazil, England and Germany and Korea and Japan, but the rivalry between Malaysia and Singapore is little known by the masses.
And the first semifinal of the six-nation invitational tournament is not only a path to the final, but also a stage a showdown between two of Southeast Asia's bitterest rivals.
Malaysia, who are three places ahead of Singapore in the FIFA Ranking, are tipped favourites in the match after the way they performed against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the group stage, but Malaysian coach Razip Ismail doesn't want to tag them favourite just yet, as he has known the opponents for a long time and understands their game quite well.
“We respect them because Singapore are familiar with our game. We are very close to each other, we understand their players and we understand their game. I think it is going to be difficult for both teams,” Razip said, hinting at the rivalry they have with Singapore.
Though Razip is worried about keeping the momentum of his team following their four-day rest, he hoped to produce good performance to reach the final.
Singapore coach Richard Bok Kok Chuan believes he has already achieved the target, after unearthing 10 to 12 players from this group for his Olympic squad, but he now wants his charges to put up a good fight against their nemesis Malaysia.
“We have a long-standing rivalry with Malaysia as we play in Malaysian cup and Singapore players play in Malaysian league. We are close to each other. From all age-levels to the national team, there is rivalry,” explained Bok, adding that they need to work hard as a team to close Malaysia down to progress to the final.
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