The New Paper’s sports journalist Sazali Aziz revealed his surprise at the “shockingly good” City team after watching their 2-0 win over Vasco da Gama.
The Blues face a Singapore team that will be fighting to stay alive in the tournament – only a win will do for Nazri Nasir’s men against a City side that will need to guard against complacency.
Nasir spoke in glowing terms of his charges after their first match - a 2-1 defeat to Vasco – praising ”The Lions’” character.
“I am very proud of my boys and they fought hard on the pitch. They never gave up despite conceding the early goal,” said Nasir.
“They played up to my expectations. We certainly gave a better fight in the 2nd half. My players have a big heart which makes up for their small size on the pitch.”
The tournament organiser is Red Card director R.Sasikumar, a former Singapore international in his own right. In previewing tonight’s match, he cited a lack of togetherness in a technically gifted team as his reason for believing City to be favourites.
“When you look at the Singapore u15 side they’re very young a lot of the boys are 13 or 14 years old and have been put together in the last four months for this competition,” said Sasikumar.
“You can tell by the way they played against Vasco that they still lack a lot of teamwork and coordination. Technically they are good but they need to be playing more as a unit and develop a bit of physicality.”
You can watch the match live on Eurosport 2 at 13:45, follow it on Twitter with us, or catch the match highlights on the site tomorrow.
