Azkals hope to continue winning ways vs Lions

The Philippines comes face to face with a familiar foe when it faces Singapore in the two-leg semifinals of the 2012 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup.

The Philippines will host Singapore in this Saturday’s first leg at the Rizal Memorial Stadium while Singapore will have homecourt advantage in the second leg on Dec. 12 at the Jelan Besar Stadium.

This will be the third time that the Philippine Azkals will face the Singapore Lions in a span of three months with the Azkals having prevailed over the Lions in the two previous meetings, which were friendly matches.

In the first friendly held in Singapore, the Azkals blanked the Lions, 2-0, in September. In their most recent meeting last Nov. 15 here at the Cebu City Sports Center, Marwin Angeles scored the lone goal in the 54th minute to tow the Azkals past the Lions, 1-0.

The stage for their third meeting was set when the Philippines finished as the runner-up in group A while Singapore finished as the winner in group B during the group stages of the AFF Suzuki Cup.

The Philippines finished in the no. 2 spot with six points on a 2-1 (win-loss) card.  The Azkals yielded, 1-2, to host Thailand, came back with a 1-0 win against Vietnam then finished with a historic 2-0 win against Myanmar.

The other semifinals pairing pits Thailand and Malaysia.