KUALA LUMPUR - Having not played competitive match for more than 550 days, the national football team is far from its best when mauled 4-1 by Kuwait in a friendly match at the Sevens Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
World No 148 Kuwait drew first blood when Mohd Farizal Marlias failed to stop Ahmad Aldhefeery’s long range effort in the 21st minute in the warm up match on Sunday.
However, Harimau Malaya’s new naturalised striker Guilherme de Paula levelled the score by converting a cross from La'Vere Lawrence Corbin-Ong seven minutes later. The score remained 1-1 at halftime.
After the break, Harimau Malaya head coach Tan Cheng Hoe decided to change the entire team bar only de Paula and Syamer Kutty Abba from the starting eleven.
Three minutes into the second half young sensation Luqman Hakim Shamsudin, who was given his senior team debut, had a goal scoring chance denied by Kuwait’s goalkeeper.
The Blue Wave squad again took the lead through Fahad Alhajeri’s header in the 55th minute, while striker Shabaib Alkhaldi netted another goal in the 61st minute against the World No 153 Malaysia.
Kuwait continued its scoring spree through skipper Fahad Al-Alabraim’s freekick in the 68th which then made Cheng Hoe hand goalkeeper Samuel Somerville a debut when he replaced Khairulazhan Khalid.
Cheng Hoe has another friendly against World No 99 Bahrain at Manama on Friday to work on his team, before returning to Dubai for the 2022 World Cup/2023 Asian Cup second round qualifiers.
The Harimau Malaya squad is set to resume Group G qualifiers against UAE on June 3, Vietnam (June 11) and Thailand (June 15) with the aim of making it to the 2023 Asian Cup in China.
The national team’s last match was the 2-0 win over Indonesia in the qualifying campaign on Nov 19, 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic halted the qualifiers. - Bernama. May 24, 2021
