Here is his summary of the tournament after caught the likes of Arsenal, Atlético Madrid and PSG (Paris Saint-Germain) in action in a space of five days at Kallang.
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Arsenal head coach Unai Emery |
Early birds Arsenal arrived with a full squad which included former German international Mesut Özil who was, however, not featured in their opening match against Atlético Madrid, as new Gunners gaffer Unai Emery opted for a similar system favoured by his predecessor Arsene Wenger with Aaron Ramsey skippering the side.
The highlight of this opening match was England youth international Emile Smith Rowe cancelled out Atlético’s Luciano Vietto’s 41st minute goal with a brilliant individual effort in just two minutes after the break to salvage his team to a one-all draw at full time.
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Emile Smith Rowe (second from right) levelled for Arsenal against Atlético Madrid (Getty Images for ICC) |
Nonetheless, all these were futile when the match went into lottery and saw Atlético won on penalties at the end of the day.
Arsenal did not wait for long and bounced back strongly to beat PSG 5-1 in front of 50,308 spectators at the National Stadium two days later.
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PSG's 'keeper Gianluigi Buffon (Getty Images for ICC) |
Handicapped by the absence of superstars like Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, PSG's young starters were obviously not able to match the dominance of Arsenal and had to rely on the experience of Italian legend Gianluigi Buffon in between the posts to avoid further bloodshed.
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Angel Di Maria played in the last match of ICCSG 2018 |
It was a nail-biter thriller towards the end of the final match of this year's tournament when Virgiliu Postolachi sealed the match in a dramatic fashion to see PSG beat Atlético Madrid 3-2 in dying minutes.
Despite the non-appearance of several star players who opted out of this year's ICCSG after the World Cup, fans in Singapore did witness a few uprising stars in the likes of Matteo Guendouzi, Moussa Diaby, etc. who all have the potential to carve a niche of their own in years to come.
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The same way that the Lion City Cup grooms future SG Lions, the ICC grooms future internationals. Pity the non-competitive nature of the tournament.
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