Written by: Aysha Ridzuan

Albirex Niigata (S) grabbed their seventh win in ten games after a comfortable 3-0 victory against Garena Young Lions at Jurong East Stadium on Thursday night.

Tatsuro Inui opened the scoring for the White Swans early in the game before Atsushi Kawata netted their second to give the hosts a 2-0 lead at the break

Young Lions were punished again in the second-half when Kento Nagasaki scored the White Swans’ third goal from a free-kick.

The visitors had their first chance just six minutes into the game when defender Taufiq Muqminin met Fareez Farhan’s free-kick, but sent his header went wide.

The hosts took the lead in the 16th minute when Naofumi Tanaka’s cross found an unmarked Inui and the latter flicked the ball into the net.

Young Lions’ custodian Benjamin Bertrand, was kept busy throughout the night by the dangerous hosts, then stopped a fierce shot from Tomoki Menda inside the 18-yard box.

However, the Frenchman was beaten again in the 29th minute when the Inui’s cross found Kawata and the latter headed home his 10th goal of the season.

Nagasaki, who was fantastic for the hosts throughout the game, had a chance to get on the scoresheet in the 37th minute, but sent a free-kick just inches past the post.

The visitors had their best chance of the game to pull a goal back two minutes later when Fareez connected with Hami Syahin’s cross in the box, but saw his close-range header saved by Nqzawa.

Albirex came out for second period all-guns blazing and almost added a third on the hour mark when Inui launched a piledriver at goal inside the 18-yard box, but Bertrand was equal to the task.

The woodwork then came to the Young Lions rescue twice in a matter of minutes when Hiroyoshi Kamata’s piledriver from the edge of the box came off the crossbar, before Nagasaki’s shot from 12-yards out rattled the frame of the goal.

The White Swans then sealed their win ten minutes from time when Nagasaki curled his  free-kick into the top corner of the net to kill off any hopes of the Young Lions had of a comeback.

 

Albirex Niigata (S) coach Naoki Naruo: “I think defensively we did well but in the offensive side, I think we could be better. We should have been more aggressive upfront.

“However I’m happy with the win. The atmosphere around the team is good but we want to show better performance to challenge for the title.”

Garena Young Lions coach Patrick Hesse: “Albirex is a very good team. In the first half we tried play low but we were not aggressive enough. We should have done better for the first two goals.

“Also we didn’t create chances as we did in the past two games. In this case I think our attackers didn’t do enough tonight.”

Albirex Niigata (S): Yosuke Nozawa (GK/C), Mikiya Yamada, Kento Fujihara, Atsushi Shirota, Naofumi Tanaka, Tomoki Menda (Mazaya Jitozono 79’), Shuto Inaba (Tadaaki Yazawa 87’), Kento Nagasaki, Tatsuro Inui, Kazuki Mine (Hiroyoshi Kamata 58’), Atsushi Kawata

Garena Young Lions: Benjamin Bertrand (GK), Amirul Adli, Zakir Shamsudin (Asyraf Aziz 58’), Taufiq Muqminin (Asyrul Syafeeq 84’), Rusyaidi Salime, Joshua Pereira, Ammirul Emmran, Fareez Farhan, Firdaus Kasman (C), Hazim Faiz (Khairul Amri 62’), Hami Syahin