Eagles ready for final battle

Geylang International are set for their 28th and final game of the season as Noor Ali’s side gets ready to host recently-crowned AIA Singapore Premier League champions Albirex Niigata at Our Tampines Hub on Friday.

Heading into this fixture on the back of a 4-2 win over Balestier Khalsa to climb to fourth place, the Eagles will be eager to upset Albirex to make it two on the bounce and sign off the season with a top-four finish.

A victory against the White Swans, whom they have not beaten for eight matches dating back to July 2019, will do the Eagles’ morale a whole world of good as they look to gain some momentum ahead of the Singapore Cup group stage which gets underway next week.

Geylang International have also a score to settle with Albirex after the league champions inflicted their biggest defeat of the season with an 8-2 drubbing in May.

On the other two occasions, the Eagles did give the champions a run for their money before being forced to share the spoils.

Noor’s side did well to pull off a 2-2 draw in April despite having to play over 30 minutes with just 10 men.

In August, Geylang were denied all three points as Faizal Roslan’s own goal in stoppage time forced the Eagles to settle for a 2-2 draw after strikes from Vincent Bezecourt and Sime Zuzul had put the team 2-1 ahead.

“I would like to congratulate Albirex for winning the league. They truly deserved it. It will be an honour for Geylang to play the champions in the final fixture of the season,” said Noor.

“But we will not be showing too much respect for them, we’ll be trying our very best to beat them.

“I don’t think there will be any easing off from the visitors either as they too want to finish the season on a winning note.

“We have shown that we could take the game to them twice this season.

“It’ll be a tough game for us, as every game is, but it will be nice to sign off the season with a win in front of our own fans at OTH.”

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