LAHORE, Feb 12: While Pakistan opted to keep their football coach away from the press, their team manager predicted a victory on Monday, although Singapore coach Terry Pathmanathan avoided predicting results of home Olympic qualifying round match to be played on Wednesday.

Although it is a usual practice that coaches talk to the media at media conferences before any event, Pakistan coach Mohammad Rasheed was absent from the press conference because of a “training session”. The coaches speak at press conferences since they are the technocrats, in-charge of training, selection and all the technical aspects of the game, while manager is mere an administrative job.

However, Pakistan manager Irfan Khan was confident of a victory against Singapore after a 2-1 win in away match last week.

"Our boys are fit, both physically and mentally for the next match and they are quite capable of beating Singapore for the second time after a deserved win against them last week," manager said.

After away win, even a draw at home put Pakistan in the final qualifying round where they meet Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain on home and away basis.

"The home ground and crowed advantages will also be helping us while weather conditions are an added factor supporting us against Singapore," Irfan said.

The manager didn’t agree when asked if he was being overconfident and boastful.

"Our boys defeated Singapore while playing for the first time on a synthetic pitch while here will be grassy pitch which will help us more to play our original game," he said.

He complained that Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) was unaware about the synthetic pitch selected by Singapore for the away match.

Pakistan manager said except Haji Mohammad all players were physically fit, but hoped he would recover before the match. He said Haji Mohammad was injured after a head-on collision during the match against Singapore.

"The experts and press of Singapore were expecting Pakistan's defeat by six or nine goals, but I have told them Pakistan have the potential to win 3-1.”

While Irfan was confident of a victory at Punjab Stadium, Pathmanathan was humble and wisely termed Pakistan a good emerging side, saying both the teams had equal chances of win.

"Obviously, we are expecting a tough fight in the next fixture and my boys have to put extra efforts to overcome the challenge from Pakistan. But I think both teams have equal chances to win," Pathmanathan said.

"The 2-1 defeat at home was indeed disappointing, but the next game will be different one. My boys are hopeful of better results here. I have prepared a different strategy for this match, keeping in view the past performance of Pakistan in Singapore," he said.

Pathmanathan said his team was facing some fitness problems but that were no serious injury. He said defeat at home forced him to make some changes and to chalk up a different strategy for the crucial match.

He admitted his team would be under the pressure after the defeat at home and would be facing a disadvantage of playing in front of foreign crowd and ground.

Asked if his team would have any problem playing on a grassy pitch, he said his players were familiar of grassy pitches and there was only one synthetic pitch in Singapore. Although he said weather in Lahore was much colder than Singapore, he didn’t make it an excuse.

While Pakistan need a win or draw to qualify for the next round, Singapore have to win the match by a margin of 3-1. In case Singapore win 2-1, the decision will be on penalty shoot.

Meanwhile, PFF vowed to make strict security arrangements for Olympic qualifying round between Pakistan and Singapore on Wednesday.

PFF said at least 700 police officials would be deployed in and around the Punjab Stadium to control the fans.

Last year, a match between Jordan and Pakistan was marred after fans of both sides clashed and invaded the pitch before being baton-charged by police. Police arrested some Jordanians and later released when they tendered apology before the national press.Meanwhile, both Pakistan and Singapore had practice sessions at Punjab Stadium.

Singapore squad:

Goalkeepers: Zakaria Normat, Hyrulnizam Juma'at, Zaiful Nizam.

Defenders: Kairudin Ishak, Yusiskandar Yusop, Ismail Yunos, Noor Ikhsan, Jeremy Chiang, Shaiful Esah, Sahairi Ramri, Zulfadli Zainal.

Midfielders: Isa Halim, Hariss Harun, Shukor Zailan, Ridhwan Jamaludin, Shahdan Sulaiman, Naufal Omar, Firdaus Idros.

Strikers: Sufian Anuar, Syed Tahar, Fazrul Nawaz, Khairul Amri.