Hong Kong v Singapore: football’s battle of Asia’s world cities ends all square
- Singaporeans take lead against run of play, but hosts Hong Kong equalise just before half-time then press without success for a winner
- No booing of China’s national anthem at a raucous Mong Kok Stadium, after jeers were heard at previous matches
There were boos aplenty, but they were all for Singapore at Mong Kok Stadium, in a friendly that felt anything but in terms of regional prestige.
It was said many times during the pandemic that Hong Kong had fallen behind its oft-compared southern counterpart, and the spectacle of its football team trailing the Lion City 1-0 early in Thursday’s international promised uncomfortable symbolic mileage.
Asia’s self-styled world city recovered to share a diplomatic 1-1 draw, even if its players had held the initiative for the lion’s share of this battle of international hubs.
Hong Kong at least avoided a total public-relations disaster on the day golf’s pointedly named World City Championship got under way across town.
There was an own goal, but by the visitors’ Lionel Tan Han Wei, to cancel out his strike at the correct end.