Singapore hold Malaysia to 1-1 draw in Asean semiKUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Singapore held Malaysia 1-1 in the first leg of their Asean Football Federation Cup semi-final on Tuesday, with striker Noh Alam Shah scoring his ninth goal of the competition.
Alam Shah's 71st minute equaliser cancelled out Hardi Jaafar's 56th minute wonder strike for the dominant Malaysians in front of a 30,000 crowd.
Malaysia desperately looked for the winner but Singapore held on, despite having captain Aide Iskandar sent off in the final minutes for a second yellow card for time wasting.
The second leg will be played on Saturday at Singapore's National Stadium. The other semi-final is between Vietnam and Thailand, who play the first leg on Wednesday.
Nizaruddin Yusof, Hardi and Eddy Helmi all had chances to put Malaysia ahead as Singapore struggled to put together any decent attacks.
Hardi finally broke the deadlock when he received a bobbling ball from 25 yards out on the left touchline and unleashed a dipping volley over Singapore goalkeeper Lionel Lewis' outstretched arm and into the far corner of the net.
The goal lifted the Malaysian players before Singapore were gifted a goal 15 minutes later.
Alam Shah, who scored seven goals against Laos in the group stages, was left unmarked in the box to head past Malaysian goalkeeper Syamsari Mustafa.
POST MATCH CONFERENCE QUOTESSingapore coach Raddy Avramovic: "Like I said earlier it will be a tough match and I was right. The second leg will be just as tough and there is still plenty to play for. "One small mistake and one small decision can change the match. But we played well too and scored one lovely goal. But now we will play without our captain (Aide Iskandar) and it will be tough.
Malaysian coach Norizan Bakar: "We did everything we had to do in a match. We defended, we created and we scored a goal. "I will be happy to go to Singapore with such attitude from my players. "There is still so much to play for and tonight's performance will give us the positive outlook when we play in Singapore.