Lion City Sailors beat Tanjong Pagar United 6-0 at Jalan Besar Stadium on Sunday (25 October), with substitute Antonio Mance scoring twice and Hariss Harun heading in the last goal, Lion City Sailors’ match report shows. It was their fourth straight win in all competitions.
A first half of near misses
Kick-off was pushed back 30 minutes because of the weather. Once it started, the Sailors attacked from the first whistle. Ilhan Fandi forced Aitor Mújica to palm away a header in the seventh minute and had a goal ruled out for offside in the 11th.
Full-back Jorge Karseladze hit the post five minutes later, and Kyoga Nakamura struck the base of the same post from outside the box in the 20th minute.
The breakthrough came in the 37th minute from an unlikely source. Centre-back Hugo Gomes stepped out of defence and hit a shot from 30 yards into the net, his second goal for the club. “It’s not usual for a centre-back to score like this, but it was my lucky day,” the Brazilian said.
Five goals after the break
Matthias Phaëton doubled the lead on the hour, turning away from Lazar Vujanić and Kieran Teo after a first-time pass from Kyoga for his fourth Sailors goal. Mance came on in the 65th minute and soon glanced in a cross from Diogo Costa, the Portuguese midfielder’s 26th assist since arriving in Singapore.
Giovanni Haag made it four in the 86th minute, drilling a free-kick under the jumping wall. In the 93rd minute Mújica let Mance’s shot from a Kyoga cutback slip into the net, and two minutes later Hariss headed in a corner. It was the captain’s first Singapore Premier League goal in four years.
Tanjong Pagar did not have a shot on target all game.
Jackson’s 3-4-3 holds
Head coach Mark Jackson made four changes from the 2-0 win at FC Jurong the week before but kept the 3-4-3. “We have got the firepower on the flanks and in the middle to finish off those chances,” the Englishman said. Hugo was named Man of the Match.
The Sailors are second in the Singapore Premier League on 10 points from five games, behind Geylang International. They fly to Australia to play Adelaide United in their third AFC Champions League Two group game on Thursday (29 October).
