HANOI – The loss to Vietnam has put Malaysia in a precarious situation – Harimau Malaya must win their next match against Singapore or forget about advancing to the semi-finals of the Asean Football Federation Cup.
The 0-3 defeat may be a bitter pill to swallow for the Malaysian side but come next Tuesday, there will be no time to look back at the spills in Hanoi. Instead, South Korean coach Kim Pan-gon and his charges must pull up their socks and enter the battleground with only a cry for victory.
Malaysia, currently second place in Group B with six points from three matches, will face Singapore, also having six points but from two matches, at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium on Tuesday.
Skipper Mohamad Faisal Abdul Halim, who had landed in Hanoi with a proud record of having scored in both of Malaysia’s previous matches, had a rather quiet game against Vietnam and failed to find the target in the defeat.
However, the prolific striker with three goals under his belt in the competition will have a good six days ahead of him to rest and shine his scoring boots in preparation to face Singapore.
“Naturally, our opponent Singapore will go all out to achieve a win against us. We have a week to prepare physically and mentally for the all-important match.
“We want to bring back the smiles on coach (Kim Pan-gon’s) face... he certainly came here to win and we too had the same objective because Malaysia has not won against Vietnam in the past eight years. We were eager to erase that record but things did not work out,” he told reporters after the match against Vietnam here last night.
In yesterday’s match against Vietnam at the My Dinh National Stadium, Vietnam scored a convincing 3-0 victory with goals from Nguyen Tien Linh, Que Ngoc Hai and Nguyen Hoang Duc, advancing them to the top of Group B with six points after two matches.
Vietnam will face Singapore in their third match at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore on Friday. – Bernama, December 28, 2022
