On the way back from their three week tour of the Netherlands, the Solomon Islands national football team suffered a narrow 4-3 defeat to Singapore on Saturday night at the Singapore National Stadium.
The home side got off to flying start when Faris Ramli headed home Shahdan Sulaiman’s cross in the 4th minute, but the Pacific Islanders looked the likelier to score towards the end of the half through Joses Nawo who forced two good saves from Izwan Mahbud inisde two minutes.
Solomon Islands were back on level terms three minutes after the re-start courtesy of Feni Gagame who cut in from the right before firing into the bottom corner.
It got even better for the visitors as Andrew Abba took advantage of Adam Swandi’s poor first touch to give his side the lead with a left-footed strike that bounced in from the post.
Shahdan’s Sulaiman’s 67th minute free-kick made it 2-all before Benjamin Totori finished off a swift counter-attacking move to give Solomon Islands the lead again in the 75th minute.
Singapore replied almost instantly through Gabriel Quak followed by Hariss Harun’s 85th minute winner from close range.
Solomon Islands coach Wim Rijsbergen said his players must learn from their mistakes.
“We gave a couple of goals away and allowed Singapore back into the game,” said the Solomon Islands coach.
“We have guys who come from very low standards and we have to learn in international football, every mistake can lead to a goal,” he added.
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