KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s winning streak before the 2022 Asean Football Federation Cup (AFF Cup) continued tonight when they beat the Maldives 3-0 in a friendly match at the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium in Cheras.
Only four players from the team that beat Cambodia 4-0 in another Tier One friendly match last Friday were still on the team. This meant that the head coach Kim Pan Gon had made a lot of changes to the team.
In today’s game, Malaysia set the pace from the start and had a good chance in the 11th minute, but Maldives goalkeeper Hussain Shareef blocked Darren Lok’s good shot after Brendan Gan passed the ball to him.
The missed chance didn’t get the home team down, though, and they kept attacking until Darren quickly finished off a pass from captain Muhammad Safawi Rasid in the 24th minute to make up for his earlier miss.
Malaysia, which is ranked 146th in the world, couldn’t score until both teams went into the locker room.
The home team got off to a better start in the second half, and Muhammad Faisal Abdul Halim scored in the 64th minute to give the 6,000 or so fans something to cheer about.
Pan Gon’s team was all over the Maldives after Muhammad Faisal scored, but they couldn’t finish. Faisal’s header in the 68th minute missed the goal, and three minutes later, another shot was on target but the goalkeeper stopped it.
Muhammad Safawi was replaced by naturalised player Lee Tuck, whose thunderous header hit the crossbar in the 85th minute. Three minutes later, he made sure his shot counted by finishing off a pass from Muhammad Azam Azmi Murad.
Also, Pan Gon is likely to name his 23-person team for the AFF Cup in 2022 soon, after he decides which five players from the current squad of 28 will be cut.
Malaysia’s first match in Group B of the AFF Cup is on December 21 against Myanmar in Yangon. On December 24, they play Laos at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil. On December 27, they play Vietnam in Hanoi and Singapore in Bukit Jalil.
Malaysia won the tournament in 2010, but in 1996, 2014, and 2018, it came in second.
In Singapore, the team didn’t make it out of the first round of groups.
info source – Bernama