SINGAPORE – Singapore’s first competitive match under new coach Bernd Stange ended in defeat today (Aug 14) after they lost 2-0 to Oman in an Asian Cup qualifier at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

The Lions started the game well and treated the Jalan Besar crowd to a good display of Stange’s passing brand of football. But Oman took the lead in the 15th minute after a neat attacking move resulted in a shot being placed beyond the reach of LionsXII goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud.

Qiu Li had a golden opportunity to level the scores in the 29th minute but his free-kick on the edge of the area went inches wide.

That miss proved to be costly as Oman doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time with a perfectly-placed shot from long range.

The visitors dominated proceedings in a dull second half and had several more opportunities to extend their lead. Fortunately for the Lions, the visitors were denied by a combination of poor finishing and good defending.

The biggest cheers of the night were reserved for 17-year-old striker Adam Swandi, who came on just before the hour mark to replace Balestier Khalsa forward Qiu Li.

Singapore midfielder Hariss Harun said after the match: "I think we played relatively well. We kept the ball, we tried to penetrate, we managed to get forward a couple of times, as well as the diagonal crosses. But I think we could have done a bit better. "Maybe we were unlucky with the first goal they had one shot and it went it. Then from then on, we still tried to play our usual game. But we obviously still have a long way to go to play this kind of football. And if we stay positive and stick to what we’ve been doing in training. "I think it’s not easy to play high tempo, one-touch, two-touch football. You need to constantly be on the move. Pressing also will take up a lot of your energy. I think it was a difficult game in terms of fitness for us, physically. For us, it will only make us better to play good quality of position like this. The more we play the better we get. "I think of course, we are a bit down but I’m sure we will come out of this game more positive. "The players will keep their heads up and try to learn from this because for a start, we did something. In this game we tried to keep the ball so we have to learn from this." Oman coach Paul Le Guen said: "I think that we did a good job. During the first half we were average, we didn’t have enough chances but we were efficient. In contrast, we did better in the second half but we didn’t score, so it’s a bit strange. But the most important is the result, and our aim was to qualify so it was very important to win this game away and I was afraid of the context, the artificial pitch and a new and very shrewd coach here. But I think we have improved and we deserve to win." When asked what he thought of Singapore's performance, he said: "I think it’s a matter of tactics, and I think Singapore is on the right way. When you have a good coach, you can do very well and I think Singapore has a good coach."

Singapore have now lost both their Group A encounters and have yet to score a goal. Their next Asian Cup qualifier will be against Syria at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Oct 15.