Eagles soar to fourth place

Geylang International soared into the top four of the Singapore Premier League after clinching their second consecutive victory with a commanding 2-0 win over Brunei DPMM at home on Wednesday.

The opening 20 minutes of the match saw little to differentiate between the two sides as they battled for supremacy.

However, it was the Eagles who finally broke the deadlock in the 25th minute with a scintillating counter-attack orchestrated by the talented French maestro, Vincent Bezecourt, before coolly finishing it himself.

After a brilliant defensive intervention to thwart the visitors’ attacking move, the Eagles swiftly regained control of the ball and calmly got themselves out of the danger zone with just three touches.

Bezecourt then made the most of the space as he accelerated forward before finding Iqbal Hussain on the right flank.

Iqbal, in turn, swiftly delivered a low cross into the box for Bezecourt to unleash a ferocious strike to beat Kristjan Naumovski.

With his sixth goal of the season, Bezecourt is now the club’s joint top scorer alongside Yushi Yamaya.

Five minutes into the second half, Iqbal doubled the advantage for the Eagles by scoring from close range, thanks to Yamaya’s spectacular wing play during the build-up.

It took Iqbal’s goal tally to four thus far, on par with Naufal Azman.

As the match reached the hour mark, Geylang International had the chance to make it 3-0 from the spot, but Yamaya’s well-placed strike to the right was superbly saved by Naumovski.

Brunei DPMM tried to find their way back into the game and came agonizingly close to reducing the deficit in the 71st minute, had it not been for Hafiz Ahmad’s incredible full-stretch effort to deny Hakeme Yazid’s close-range strike.

The Eagles have 22 points from 15 games, one more than fifth-placed Balestier Khalsa.

“We did well in keeping possession and also breaking them a few times in the first half, but I think we should have killed off the game at 3-0 with the penalty and avoided putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure in the final 15 minutes of the game,” said head coach Noor Ali.

“The DPMM, as we know, they are a very physical side, they’ve got good height. So, they can be really dangerous when it comes to set pieces.

“But I thought the boys were brilliant and defended the last 10 minutes very well.”

Noor also heaped praise on his side for claiming their first back-to-back wins since March despite having to play with a depleted squad.

“Nothing much has changed. During the international break, we worked on certain things we wanted to improve,” said Noor.

“At the end of the day, you want to keep your full squad injury-free. That’s why I said with the small numbers that I have at my disposal, they were superb in the last two games.”

Ends.