By Jasmond Tan | Fit to Post Sports – 1 hour 12 minutes ago
The Singapore under-16 team is through to the final of the 23rd Canon Lion City Cup after beating Juventus under-15s 4-3 in a controversial penalty shootout.
The under-16s, who won bronze at last year's Youth Olympic Games, were held 2-2 by the Italians after 90 minutes.
But the spotlight was on the penalty shootout, when Cubs midfielder Jonathan Tan missed his spot-kick to the horror of the 2,190-strong crowd.
But in a surprise move, referee Sukhbir Singh ordered a re-take after he deemed that Juventus custodian Entonjo Elezaj had stepped off his line early.
Jonathan scored on his second attempt before Juventus Lorenzo Zarmanian missed his team's last penalty kick to send them crashing out of the tournament.
The Italians were clearly incensed at the referee's decision and confronted him and the 4th official after the game.
The Cubs had earlier dominated the Italians from the start. Hazim Hassan, who scored in Wednesday's game against Everton, put his side in front after six minutes with a well-placed shot.
He was at it again minutes later, when he coolly slotted home a through ball from Hanafi Akbar to double Singapore's lead and took his tally in the tournament to 3 goals.
Cubs midfielder Hanafi Akbar thanks the supporters. (Photo by Muse PR)
That changed the dynamics of the game immediately as Juventus started to take control and looked threatening in attack.
Fabio Gili grabbed a goal back in the 59th minute before Gianluca Tartaglia equalised with a fine header from a corner minutes later to send the game into penalties.
Juventus team manager Riccardo Cavallari was careful not to criticise the referee after the game.
He said, "We have to respect whatever the decision the referee makes, whether it is right or wrong. We are human, we all make mistakes. But you all saw it, so you all make your own conclusions yourself."
"The only thing I'm going to say is that it's been hard to explain something like that to 15-year-olds," he added.
Coach Takuma Koga with in-form striker Hazim Hassan (Yahoo! photo/Jasmond Tan)
Meanwhile, the Singapore under-15s had no such luck as they crashed to a 0-3 defeat to CR Flamengo in the second game of the night.
The samba boys proved their title credentials with arguably their best performance in the tournament thus far.
The under-15s could not match the Brazilians. (Photo by Muse PR)
Their only blip of the night was when influential playmaker Herson Pinheiro was harshly sent off for a second yellow card offence, thus ruling him out of the final.
Flamengo coach Celso Martins was clearly not impressed by the refereeing. (Yahoo! photo/Jasmond Tan)
The 3rd/4th placing and the final will be played on Sunday at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
