Lions end six match winless run with 3 1 victory over the Maldives

SINGAPORE – With Ikhsan Fandi marking his international football return with a brace to end the Lions’ six-game winless streak, Singapore will head into their Asian Cup qualifier in Bangladesh on June 10 with some confidence.

The difficult spell ended on June 5 with a 3-1 friendly win over the Maldives in front of 2,297 fans at the Bishan Stadium.

The Lions’ previous victory was a 3-0 win over Timor-Leste during the group stage of the Asean Championship in December.

Said Ikhsan, 26: “I’m just happy to be back with the national team, happy to help with the goals, and happy that we won.

“It’s important for the team to get the victory and the goals and get the confidence up. But we have a lot of things to work on. We have to regroup and focus on the next game... because that’s the most important one.”

National coach Tsutomu Ogura was also pleased with Ikhsan’s performance and hopes he can continue improving as he works his way back to full fitness.

He said: “I’m happy he could run for 60 minutes and score from set piece and open play. This is good for his confidence against Bangladesh. If we have good delivery, he can score.”

Ogura’s men had scored just once in their last five matches and are missing star forward Shawal Anuar, who is set to undergo a medical procedure during this period. But they were initially bright and clinical in attack against the woeful visitors, whose domestic league was suspended for the last two years.

The Japanese made five changes to the side who started the goal-less Asian Cup qualifier against Hong Kong in March as fit-again striker Ikhsan made a timely return as the lone target man in a 4-5-1 system.

Young Lions forward Amir Syafiz