Lion City Sailors surrendered their Singapore Premier League title to Albirex Niigata (Singapore) after losing 4-2 to their opponents on Friday evening at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
The win puts the White Swans on 58 points, seven points ahead of the Sailors with two league matches to go. This is the Japanese team’s fifth league title in seven seasons.
Ilhan Fandi opened the scoring for the Japanese outfit, and the league’s top scorer Kodai Tanaka bagged a hat-trick for his team. South Korean striker Kim Shin-wook and Gabriel Quak scored a goal each for the Sailors.
Sailors interim coach Luka Lalic lamented his team’s lack of finishing prowess in front of goal, but wants his charges to regroup and set their sights on another target now that the league title is out of their hands.
“One thing we didn’t use our chance today and Albirex won the game. We created many more chances than the opponents. The only problem is we didn’t utilised them,” said Lalic.
“The league itself I would sum up as we didn’t lose this game, we lost it in the last three matches. But the season itself is not over. We still have the (Singapore) Cup to focus on and that is what we are going to do,” added Lalic, who took over from former head coach Kim Do-hoon midway through the season in August.
It was all smiles and joy for Albirex head coach Kazuaki Yoshinaga and forward Tanaka who is now on 31 goals.
“We expect that today is going to be a hard game. The players are doing their own roles and that is why we can win the game,” expressed Yoshinaga.
“Today we got many supporters. We (the players) are playing and fighting together. That is why we can win the title. Every match I am trying to do my best and make the team win. My ankle is injured but today I scored three goals, that is why I am happy,” said Tanaka.
To commemorate their latest title win, Albirex will be selling a 2022 winners t-shirt that fans can purchase during their final league match of the season against Geylang International on 21 Oct at Our Tampines Hub.