Analyst John Wilkinson: Battle will be won in midfield
It was a tale of two halves for Singapore. What do you think went wrong for the Lions after the break?
WILKINSON: It was pretty much the best first-half performance I've seen from Singapore in a long time, but they fell away in the second.
They were flat after the break, and I think Shahdan Sulaiman's departure due to injury caused the midfield to become a little disjointed.
The players, particularly Shahdan's replacement Zulfahmi Arifin, were rather lackadaisical in the second half, and that was what allowed Myanmar to get two goals.
Was Myanmar's superb second-half display down to coach Radojko Avramovic changing things around?
I'm sure they got the hair-dryer treatment from Raddy at the break!
In the first half, Myanmar were guilty of conceding silly fouls and lacked the penetration that they needed to get forward.
They were caught napping in defence and, against a counter-attacking team like Singapore, you cannot do that.
But after the interval, they showed just how dangerous they can be, with their fullbacks making good overlapping runs.
If Malaysia were watching, what lessons do you think coach Dollah Salleh would have drawn from the match in order to beat Singapore on Saturday?
Like I said earlier, the Lions put in one of their best first-half performances in ages, and that would have scared Malaysia.
But in the second half, Dollah would have seen that Singapore are susceptible to counter-attacks, and he'll definitely set his team up to exploit Singapore's weakness.
It'll be a great match on Saturday and, with all to play for, I think both teams will go for the jugular. We're going to see some real end-to-end stuff.
Do you think Singapore can qualify for the semi-finals and go on to retain the title?
Well, to be honest, I'm not too sure myself. But looking at how they played before the break, then why not?
That first half is the benchmark now. If the Lions are able to replicate that performance against Malaysia, and in the later rounds if they make it out of the group, then they can beat anyone.
But, with a young side and a relatively new coach, my worry is that they might not be able to do just that.
Consistency is the key here.
* Attacking midfielder John Wilkinson is a four-time S-League champion who played for Singapore under coach Radojko Avramovic. He is now a TV pundit.
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