Singapore set the Gachibowli stadium nearly on fire scoring two goals early against traditinal rival Malaysia, but the latter bounced back to square up the match in the end, in the first match of the 6th Junior Asia Cup.

Playing almost half the period of second half with only 10 players — a Malaysian player was shown red card by the Bangladesh umpire Minto — Malaysia heaved a sigh of relief when the final whistle came.

Coach Murali termed the red card suspension harsh and said both the players should have been punished. “He only retaliated”

“Our players were complacent in the beginning, and when the found they are down, things became hot. They came under pressure and started commiting mistakes. Strictly speaking we should have scored minimum three goals in the first half, but failed miserably”, Murali analysed the proceedings.

“We know Singpapore will resort to packed defence, still we could not break and go forward” regretted Murali.