Written by: Muhammad Yazid

A packed Great Eastern Yeo’s S.League match on Friday evening saw a refreshed Geylang International make a remarkable comeback to snatch a 3-2 victory over top-form Hougang United at Jalan Besar Stadium.

The game was evenly shared by both sides as Hougang seemed to be dominating most of the game to go two goals up by the 69th minute.

The Eagles however put on a brilliant show to make an astounding comeback and score three goals in the final ten minutes.

Although Geison Moura saw an earlier chance on goal fly agonisingly inches over the bar, the Brazilian would make no mistake with his next opportunity in the 21st minute.

Fazli Jaffar played a short corner to Azhar Sairudin, who sent a deadly low, slow-paced ball into the danger area evading all defenders. Moura simply finished it off from six yards out – into the bottom corner to top the goal-scoring charts.

The game started to heat up only after the opening goal.

The Eagles started flexing their strength to force an equaliser to get back into the game while the Cheetahs were on the hunt to increase their lead.

Things started to turn ugly in the 34th minute when Hougang midfielder Azhar was sent off for throwing a punch at Fabian Kwok.

Despite being one man down, Amin Nasir’s charges were still able to hold on tight at the back and process their fluidity in all areas of the pitch throughout the game.

The first 25 minutes of the second half mirrored with the first as the Cheetahs doubled their lead in the 69th minute.

Moura turned scorer-provider as he made a lofted pass into space and substitute Fairoz Hasan placed the ball over onrushing Geylang goalkeeper Joey Sim after the Eagles’ defence failed to clear the ball to safety.

The Eagles made a miraculous turnaround and kicked-off their comeback just ten minutes before full time thanks to an own goal by Igor Cerina.

The skipper’s misplaced clearance fell into the path of Ridhuan Muhammad, who unleashed a low strike from outside the 18-yard area, before the ball unfortunately struck the foot of Cerina and found its way into the back of the net.

That goal piled more pressure on Amin Nasir’s men, as Geylang started their productive penetration especially through the flanks, eventually leading to the equaliser in the 85th minute.

A floated cross from the left created confusion in the backline resulting in a miscommunication between Hougang goalkeeper Nazri Sabri and Wahyudi Wahid.

As the duo collided in their individual attempts to clear the ball, Leonel Felice completed the simplest of tasks by tapping the ball into an open net.

The drama was still not over yet. Just as everybody was expecting a stalemate, Felice completed his brace in injury time by heading a deep cross from Fabian past the hapless Nazri.