Albirex Niigata (S) are on track in their Singapore Cup defence after easily dispatching Geylang International 2-0 in the first leg of the quarterfinal tie at Jurong East Stadium on Tuesday night.

Early goals in each half from Masaya Jitozono and Naofumi Tanaka proved to be the difference between the two sides, leaving Geylang with a mountain to climb in Friday's second leg at Jalan Besar Stadium.

Albirex left out first team players Tomoki Menda, Tatsuro Inui and Atsushi Kawata, but their three replacements combined to give the White Swans the perfect start after just 12 seconds. Daichi Ishiyama flicked on Kazuki Mine's header to take out the whole Geylang backline, leaving Jitozono with the easy task of slotting past opposition goalie Syazwan Buhari in a one-on-one situation.

Having taken such an early lead, Albirex were happy to sit back and let Geylang come at them for the remainder of the first half. However, the Eagles were unable to put their chances away.

First, Carlos Delgado lashed over from close range after being teed up by Shawal Anuar. The Argentinian playmaker then had another excellent opportunity inside the box, but his fierce drive was palmed away by Albirex custodian Yosuke Nozawa.

Amy Recha also threatened from distance after Nor Azli Yusoff had won possession in the middle, but Nowaza was on hand to smother the effort.

Albirex showed them how it should be done by doubling their advantage eight minutes into the second half. Kento Nagasaki's teasing inswinging corner picked out Tanaka, who made no mistake with his downward header inside the six-yard box.

Geylang coach Hasrin Jailani reacted to the setback by introducing mid-season signing Mark Hartmann for his debut, as well as Sahil Suhaimi, just past the hour mark.

The duo combined well in the 69th minute, with Sahil knocking on Al-Qaasimy Rahman's cross inside the box, but Hartmann could only volley high into the stadium's floodlights.

In the dying minutes, the Eagles had a chance to pull a vital goal back but substitute Gabriel Quak's inswinging free kick was easily held by Nozawa.

A 2-0 deficit looks tough for Geylang to come back from in the second leg, but Hasrin is staying positive ahead of the challenge.

"Looking at the whole game, we did well and didn't make Albirex look like they're first in the S.League," he said. "The first goal came a bit too early because the players lost focus.

"The second goal was also soft; we can definitely do much better on set pieces. But otherwise we gave them a good fight.

"Hartmann came on and contributed; that will give me a good selection headache. Anything can still happen. The key for Friday is not to let them score early."

Albirex Niigata (S): Yosuke Nozawa (GK), Mikiya Yamada, Kento Fujihara, Atsushi Shirota, Naofumi Tanaka, Shuto Inaba (C), Masaya Jitozono (Tatsuro Inui 68'), Daichi Ishiyama (Atsushi Kawata 68') Kento Nagasaki, Kazuki Mine, Hiroyoshi Kamata (Rui Kumada 82')

Geylang International: Syazwan Buhari (GK), Daniel Bennett, Shariff Samat, Yuki Ichikawa, Al-Qaasimy Rahman, Nor Azli Yusoff (C) (Gabriel Quak 51'), Carlos Delgado, Safirul Sulaiman, Faritz Hameed (Sahil Suhaimi 62'), Shawal Anuar, Amy Recha (Mark Hartmann 62')

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by Kenneth Tan

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