SINGAPORE – The Young Lions’ campaign to reach the finals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Championships came to a premature end in Yangon, Myanmar, on Friday evening (July 21) when they were hammered 0-7 by Australia in their second group qualifying match.

The defeat was the Singapore Under-23 team’s second in three days, after their 0-2 loss to hosts Myanmar on Wednesday. The thrashing by the Aussies, coupled with Myanmar’s 3-0 win over Brunei in the second match of the day means that the Republic are now unable to finish in the top two of their group.

In fact, the result means that the Young Lions are now stuck at the bottom of the four-team group with 10 goals conceded and none scored. Brunei are a place above with no goals scored and five conceded.

Followng their loss to Myanmar, Richard Tardy’s men knew they needed to avoid defeat against the Australians to stand a realistic chance of qualifying for the tournament finals.

However, whatever plans the Singapore U-23 coach had set out for his players before the game were thrown out the window within the first 20 minutes as Australia raced to an unassailable 3-0 lead. Aussie striker Milislav Popovic then scored just before the break to make it 4-0.

The second-half was no different from the first, with Australia dominating possession and chances, eventually scoring another three goals to condemn Tardy and his charges to their heaviest defeat of the year.

Speaking after the game, Tardy said he took full responsibility for the chastening loss.

“I don’t want to blame my players,” the Frenchman was quoted as saying on the AFC website.

“We knew that we had to win to keep our chances alive and we tried that. Australia is a very good team, and their level today was too high.

“Especially when you concede three goals in the first 20 minutes, it is difficult to continue for the players.

“We made some mistakes and I take full responsibility for today’s loss. We need to focus on the spirit of the players now because their mood will be down.”

Tardy said the team will now try to redeem some pride in their final game against Brunei on Sunday.

“We will try to keep our honour…that is the most important thing,” he said.

Young Lions forward Muhaimin Suhaimi admitted that the team’s tactics played a part in their defeat.

He said: “We’d like to apologise to the fans if the result didn’t meet their expectations. We really tried our best but our tactics seemed off in this match.

“But we give credit to the coach as it was not easy to set up the team against a big side like Australia. Nonetheless, we definitely learnt a lot from this game and we will come back stronger for sure.”

Singapore’s game against Brunei on Sunday is now a dead-rubber match, with the result only determining which team will finish with the wooden spoon in Group F.

The Young Lions will then head back to Singapore next week before flying to Perth, Australia for a training camp to prepare for next month’s South-East Asian (SEA) Games.