Singapore women have beaten Pakistan women in lone FIFA friendly match at Jalan Besar Stadium, Kallang on Tuesday.
Singapore, who are ranked 131st in the FIFA rankings, managed to score the only goal of the match in the 81st minute. Debutant Farah Nurzahirah made an impressive strike to score a match-deciding goal.
Pakistani players missed a couple of chances to score the goal after an exciting 0-0 finish in the first half.
It must be noted here that Pakistan were scheduled to play two friendly matches.
But due to late issuance of No-Objection Certificate (NOC) and visas, the tour has been shortened to just one match.
The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) received NOC for the tour on July 13 after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's special assistant, Shiza Fatima, intervened in the matter. The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) had shown its inability to process the NOC for the country’s women football team’s tour of Singapore because of shortage of time.
"Prime Minister played an important role in getting NOC for our team," Shaza said.
Pakistan team reached the venue in the morning yesterday. They took rest in the afternoon and did training in the night.
It is worth mentioning that the Football Association of Singapore sent official confirmation of the tour to PFF on 26th June, and PFF wrote the letter for NOC on 27th, which was delivered to PSB soon after Eid Holidays.
A source in PFF wondered how PSB can expect a federation to send documents for NOC even before the tour is confirmed.
Last month as well, the PFF had to wait until the last minute for NOCs to tour Mauritius and India.