10-man Eagles fall to Stags in derby thriller

It was a heartbreaking night for Geylang International as a 10-man Eagles went down 3-2 to Tampines Rovers in a pulsating Eastern Derby at Our Tampines Hub (OTH) on Saturday.

The Eagles went ahead twice through Sime Zuzul and Khairul Hairie in the opening 30 minutes. But all that counted for nothing when Montenegrin hotshot Boris Kopitovic inspired the Stags to overturn the 2-1 deficit by bagging a brace that included a sublime curling strike in the 86th minute to grab all three points.

Zuzul had earlier given Geylang International a dream start in the ninth minute when he followed up a brilliant through pass from Takahiro Tezuka before beating several of his markers and Syazwan Buhari with a low strike on the bottom left.

A lapse of concentration by Zaiful Nizam and Faizal Roslan at the back proved costly for the Eagles as it led to Tampines being awarded a penalty five minutes later.

A return pass from Zaiful resulted in Faizal being dispossessed by Kopitovic, and in an attempt to recover the ball back, the centre-back was deemed to have brought down his opponent with only the slightest of contact.

Kopitovic made no mistake from the spot-kick, sending Zaiful the wrong way to put the Stags back on level terms with the Eagles.

That equaliser from the Stags had hardly dampened Geylang International’s spirit as they regrouped to launch their next assault.

And their hard work paid off at the half-hour mark when Khairul Hairie scored a screamer from outside the box, shortly after Hazzuwan Halim’s first attempt was blocked.

The Eagles then had to play almost the entire second half with 10-man after left-back Ahmad Syahir received his marching orders in the 55th minute for a second booking in a short span of just two minutes.

Tampines did not wait too long to make their advantage count when Christopher Van Huizen slammed home from close range to make it 2-2 in the 66th minute.

The Eagles tried to defend with all their might in a bid to cling on to at least a point, but Tampines would have the final say with Kopitovic’s strike.

It was Geylang International’s second defeat of the season after losing 3-2 to Hougang United.

The result leaves the Eagles in sixth spot in the eight-team standings on four points from four matches.

Head coach Noor Ali said: “It was a cruel game for us. But that’s football. We just need to pick ourselves up and look forward to our next game.”