Football: Injury-time winner sees Lionesses lose 2-1 to Indonesia

SINGAPORE - She had just returned to action in late September after a cartilage injury in her left knee saw her sidelined for a few months, but Nur Farhanah Ruhaizat still made an impact in Singapore’s 2-1 defeat by Indonesia in a friendly at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Monday.

The forward’s second-half introduction breathed life into the world No. 133 Lionesses’ attack. She even pulled one back for the hosts to make it 1-1, although they eventually succumbed to an injury-time winner to the 101st-ranked visitors.

The 24-year-old said: “(My objective was) to give my 100 per cent after a few months of not training because of injury. So, coming back, I needed to be stronger. My mindset was just do it for the team because I have nothing to lose anyway.”

The last time the teams met at July's Asean Football Federation (AFF) Women's Championship, Singapore had beaten a depleted Covid-hit Indonesia 2-0.

And although Indonesia brought a relatively young and inexperienced squad this time – only three of their 20-player squad have more than 10 caps – they made sure the Lionesses endured a nervy start, with their attack causing the hosts some trouble.

Singapore could have taken the lead in the 27th minute when Stephanie Dominguez did well to earn a penalty after she was brought down in the box, but the forward’s spot-kick was palmed away by Indonesia goalkeeper Prihatini.

The visitors then went ahead in the 51st minute when Singapore custodian Noor Kusumawati fumbled with Carla Bio Pattinasarany’s cross, allowing the ball to trickle to Marsela Yuliana Awi.

The latter tapped in from close range to put Indonesia 1-0 up.

The Lionesses came close to drawing level, with Dominguez and Nurhidayu Naszri hitting the woodwork.

They finally got their breakthrough in the 86th minute when Farhanah lobbed the ball over Prihatini to equalise.

But any hopes of a comeback were dashed by another goalkeeping error by substitute Nur Izyan Ahmad that saw Helsya Meisyaroh grab the winner in injury time.

Despite the loss, Singapore coach Stephen Ng said: “It’s important that we continue playing games like this. You can see from our squad that we have a good mixture of players – some experienced ones – and we need to continue to develop them for the future of women’s football.”

Farhanah added: “It wasn’t the same (Indonesia) team we played in the AFF. But playing against them, I feel like we are almost level, so now we know that we can go against this level of teams.

“We gave them a good fight, it’s just unfortunate.”

Indonesia coach Rudy Eka Priyambada was encouraged by the result, especially as the team aim to break into the top 100 of the world rankings again.

He said: “In the second half, Singapore were very good in attack but we were lucky that we could score at the last minute... The result makes us happy because we want to bring our ranking up.”