Lions to face Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands in June friendlies
Singapore will host Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands in two international friendlies in June, marking their first return to the National Stadium since March 2022.
The Lions, ranked 158th in the world, will play the Papuans (159th) on June 15 before entertaining Solomon Islands (134th) three days later, the Football Association of Singapore announced on Monday. Both matches will kick off at 7.30pm.
Coach Takayuki Nishigaya, who is using the games to prepare the team for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in October, said: “Both opponents will provide the kind of challenges we would like in order to expose our players to a higher level of physical and aggressive competition.”
He hoped that his charges will be fired up to play at the National Stadium, where they beat Malaysia 2-1 and the Philippines 2-0 in the Tri-Nations Series in 2022.
“We will be playing at the National Stadium for the first time since March 2022 and that in itself should be one of the motivating factors for the players to go all out.
“We want to be a team that the fans and country are proud of, and we have to show that in every match we play.”
The Lions won 2-1 when they met Papua New Guinea in 2014 while they beat Solomon Islands 4-3 in 2019.
Tickets – $18 for adults and $9 for students 16 and below and seniors 60 and above – will be available from 3pm on Thursday at www.fas.org.sg/tickets and http://sistic.com.sg as well as on site on match days.
A two-match ticket bundle will cost $28 and $16 respectively.
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