September 7, 2004

For national coach Radojko Avramovic, it was a nightmare as when the Pre-World Cup qualifier against Oman ended on June 9 in Muscat, the scoreboard read: Oman 7 Singapore 0.

The thrashing was the Serb-Montenegrin's worst result in his long coaching career while for the Lions, it was their worst defeat since they got hammered by the same margin against South Korea at the 1990 Asian Games.

Now the Lions & Avramovic will get their chance to erase the memories of that mauling when the 2 teams meet in the return leg of the Pre-World Cup qualifier at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

For the Lions, it is a simple equation - Stop the Omanis, prevent a goal rush & in the process, recover some lost pride for the Lions are out of the running for a berth in the second round of the qualifiers from Group 3.

Avramovic who was pleased with the Lions' 2-0 win against Indonesia on Saturday believes the performance is a sign of greater things to come as he said the victory will give them the confidence to know they are capable of beating teams who are ranked higher.

Having done his homework Avramovic knows Oman are a physical side with good individual players but believes they can be stopped if the team carried out the plan he had for them.