PATHUM THANI – Harimau Malaya captain Mohamad Faisal Abdul Halim did not expect Malaysia to concede three goals against Thailand in their second semi-final match in the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Cup 2022, last night.
Faisal said the national team went into action at the Thammasat Stadium with a clear mission to advance to the final and defend the 1-0 victory advantage to eliminate the defending champions.
“Of course we didn’t expect to lose 3-0, playing in Thailand we only needed to draw 0-0 or at least score one goal but this is football, not our night but we tried our best.
“At the National Stadium (in Kuala Lumpur) we won 1-0 but were attacked continuously, but here we tried to overcome them (Thailand) but failed. A lot more needs to be learned and to understand what coach Kim (Kim Pan-gon) really wants,” he said when met after the match here last night.
In the all-important clash, the War Elephants took the lead through prolific striker Teerasil Dangda’s header in the 19th minute before winger Bordin Phala and substitute striker Adisak Kraisorn got their names on the scoresheet in the 55th and 71st minutes respectively.
Malaysia, who were champions in 2010, lost on a 1-3 aggregate.
Thailand will square off against two-time champions Vietnam in the two-legged final this Friday and Monday.
Meanwhile, Faisal believes that if the squad that competed in the AFF Cup campaign this time is maintained for the next two to three years, Malaysia will be able to follow in the footsteps of Thailand and Vietnam to achieve success.
“It’s true that two or three years is a long time but we also have to look at the Vietnamese and Thai teams. They also took some time before seeing results, it’s not easy to attain success in a month,” said the 25-year-old Selangor FC winger.
For the record, the national squad coached by Kim Pan-gon at the 2022 AFF Cup were strengthened by many new faces after about 14 key players could not participate due to personal matters, family commitments and injury problems.
Reaching the semi-finals this time saw Malaysia bettering the record of being knocked out in the group stage competition in the last edition, which led to former head coach Tan Cheng Hoe’s resignation. – Bernama, January 11, 2023
