SINGAPORE – After all the years of underachievement, unrealistic dreams, heart breaks and false dawns, the Lions celebrated their biggest accomplishment in Singapore football history as they secured a maiden Asian Cup qualification with a comeback 2-1 away win over Hong Kong at the Kai Tak Stadium on Nov 18.

On the back of a remarkable perfect away record against Bangladesh, India and Hong Kong in five Group C games, the world No. 155 Lions have clinched top spot on 11 points with a game to spare.

They cannot be overtaken by 148th-ranked Hong Kong, who have eight points but an inferior head-to-head record after this defeat and a 0-0 draw in Singapore in March.

The raucous atmosphere created by the majority of the scarf-waving home fans in the 47,762-strong crowd – with about 2,000 Singapore supporters – made for a nervy start with 41-year-old Hong Kong goalkeeper Wang Zhenpeng dropping a 10th-minute Song Ui-young free-kick.

But after the hosts grew into the game, they took over proceedings and Izwan Mahbud had to be alert three minutes later to keep out Everton Camargo’s stinging effort after the Brazil-born attacker had wriggled away from Safuwan Baharudin.

Hong Kong fans went into raptures when their team took the lead in the 15th minute after Singapore failed to clear their lines. Shah Shahiran failed to prevent Camargo from crossing from the right, and Matt Orr was allowed to steal in between Hariss Harun and Harhys Stewart to head home the opener.

Ashley Westwood’s men were then content to put all 11 men behind the ball, stay compact in their defensive shape, and wait for the counter-attack, particularly down the flank through Camargo, which almost paid off if Juninho and Orr had been more clinical.

In contrast, the visitors’ response was uninspiring as their main men, including in-form attackers Ikhsan Fandi, Shawal Anuar, Song Ui-young and Glenn Kweh, failed to create a clear opportunity to test Wang further.

But just like how they came back in the 2-1 win in India in October, the Lions showed their resilience in adversity.

Something clicked after half-time, Singapore found their attacking fluency, as vulnerabilities began appearing in the previously air-tight Hong Kong defence, Gavin Lee’s men equalised as Shawal played a lovely give-and-go with substitute Ilhan Fandi and deftly flicked the ball past Wang in the 64th minute.

It got even better four minutes later when Izwan held on to Camargo’s drilled effort and launched an attack which ended with Ilhan blasting a left-footed shot past Wang to send Singapore into dream land and Asian Cup history.

The Lions did feature in the 1984 Asian Cup as hosts, but have never qualified for the continental showpiece or any other major tournament like the World Cup or Olympics despite wildly ambitious plans to qualify for the 2010 and 2034 World Cup.

They came close to making it to the 1996 Asian Cup, but blew their chance after throwing away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 against Thailand in their final qualifier when they needed a win. Similarly, they lost 2-1 at Jordan and missed out on the 2011 edition despite requiring a draw in their last qualifier.

Singapore have been in the doldrums even since they won the last of their fourth Asean titles in 2012.

Since then, they have made it to the semi-finals of the Asean Championship only twice in the 2020 and 2024 editions, and have nothing to show for at youth level other than a bronze medal at the 2013 SEA Games Under-23 tournament.

At senior level, they have gone through five full-time coaches since Radojko Avramovic left in 2012, and this Asian Cup qualifying campaign was again disrupted by a coaching change as Tsutomu Ogura left in June due to personal reasons and his assistant Gavin Lee stepped up as interim head coach.

But unlike his predecessors, the 59-year-old Japanese, who had experience as assistant coach for the Japan national and Olympic teams, managed to instil in the Lions a higher-level of professionalism, desire and courage to take the game to even higher-ranked opponents.

This is an approach the like-minded Lee has seamlessly continued with despite a global search for a full-time replacement happening in the background.

Despite the worry that the 30-somethings - Izwan, Hariss, Shawal, Safuwan and Song – are over the hill and the younger players are not good enough, the blend of experience and youth somehow worked.

As usual, there were rollercoaster moments – having two goals disallowed in the 0-0 home draw against Hong Kong, hanging on for dear life in the scrappy 2-1 away win at Bangladesh, dropping two points because of a last-minute lapse of concentration in the 1-1 home draw against India, and then needing to come from behind to beat India 2-1 away.

But this time, there was not to be the nauseating feeling from a sickening defeat.

Instead, there is hope that this historic qualification for the continental showpiece can inspire future generations of Singapore footballers to go on to greater heights.