Denmark – 5
Jim Larsen 8’
Jakob Poulsen 19’ (pen)
Rajko Lekic 35’
Mikkel Thygesen 48’
Soren Rieks 80’

A youthful Singapore squad was beaten 5-1 yesterday by Denmark in their second match of the 40th King's Cup in Korat, Thailand.

Denmark, a side preparing for June's World Cup in Africa, went up 3-0 in the first half of the match before finishing the game 5-1 against the new-look Lions, who missed the services of Shi Jiayi and Khairul Amri due to injuries. Fazrul Nawaz netted the only Singapore goal with a 25m volley from a Khairul Nizam knock-on in the 84th minute.  

"Denmark is physically and technically better, but our boys gave them a bit too much respect and allowed them to take control of the game”, coach Avramovic said after the match.

"However, we have to remember that this is the first senior international tournament that many of the young players are involved in. So, any team they play now will be at a much higher level than they have ever played before, not to mention against a World Cup bound team like Denmark. The important thing is for the players to learn from playing against big teams like such and raise their game on the international front."

The Singapore coach took consolation from the chances that the Lions managed to create against the much-stronger Denmark and has already started looking towards the next match. 

"Duric had a good shot from 20 meters that forced the Danish keeper to pull off a great save, while Fazrul managed to score a goal in the second half. So, I think we do have a chance against Poland even though they are physically and technically stronger."

SINGAPORE first XI - Hassan Sunny (GK), Jeremy Chiang, Shahril Alias, Safuwan Baharudin, Irwan Shah, Fazli Ayob, Shukor Zailan, Tengku Mushadad, Shahril Ishak, Fawrul Nawaz, Aleksandar Duric