SINGAPORE, June 2 (Reuters) – Uzbekistan sustained their 100 per cent World Cup qualifying record on Monday after they outclassed error-prone Singapore in a remarkable 7-3 victory.
Uzbekistan remain top of Asian qualifying group 4 with nine points, leaving Southeast Asian champions Singapore with just three points after their three matches.
“We don’t have plans for scoring more goals than in this game,” Uzbek coach Rauf Inileyev told reporters when asked about the sides’ next meeting in Tashkent on Saturday.
The Central Asian team went ahead after 10 minutes when Timur Kapadze slotted home a neat cross before Bosnian-born striker Aleksandar Duric replied quickly for the home side.
Uzbekistan retook the lead thanks to Victor Karpenko only for Singapore to draw level again through a Mustafic Fahrudin penalty.
The in-form Uzbeks silenced the home crowd when Server Djeparov made it 3-2 and further strikes from Vitaliy Denisov and Djeparov once more gave them a three goal halftime advantage.
Substitute Aziz Ibragimov scored the sixth after the break while John Wilkinson grabbed a consolation goal for the hosts. Dynamo Kiev’s Maksim Shatskikh rounded off the victory, neatly chipping over Singapore goalkeeper Lionel Lewis.
“If anybody had told me before the game we would score three goals against Uzbekistan, I would be very happy but today the defence looked like it didn’t exist,” Singapore coach Radojko Avramovic told reporters.
“We couldn’t cope… We must improve our team. This game showed us a lot we didn’t know.”
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July 22, 2008 at 11:24 am
[...] Uzbekistan outclassed Singapore 7-3 tonight in a World Cup Asia Group 4 encounter at the National Stadium in a gamewhich exposed some painful truths about Singapore’s standing in the world game. See the Reuters report here. [...]