Malaysia go down fighting to Singapore

The good news is that the battle is not over yet for Malaysia in their quest to qualify for the third round of the Asian Zone World Cup Qualifiers.

 

However, the sloppy defending against an inspired Singapore, which saw the AFF Cup champions going down 5-3 in their second round, first leg match at the Jalan Besar Stadium yesterday is a cause for concern ahead of the return leg on Thursday.

Malaysia's Safee Sali may have scored one of the fastest goals - after 29 seconds - in the Asian Zone qualifiers history but once Singapore turned on the heat, the national defence collapsed and they scored four past Malaysia goalkeeper Sharbinee Allawee to take a healthy lead into the break.

It could have been worse but Malaysia redeemed themselves with a second half fightback to keep the tie alive with the only blemish being the fifth goal they conceded late in the match.

National coach K. Rajagobal admitted that his team were let down by poor defending.

"We managed to get a dream start but our defence collapsed when Singapore attacked at a furious pace. We allowed them to score silly goals," said Rajagobal after the match yesterday.

"I told my boys in the dressing room at half time to raise their game as away goals count in this tie. We scored from two well-executed attempts. It could even have been 4-4 after that but we let Singapore score their fifth.

"Singapore's naturalised players, especially striker (Aleksandar) Duric and flankers Shi Jiayi and Qiu Li made a lot of difference. Duric used his aerial ability to good effect inside the penalty box while the China-born flankers were quick."

Rajagobal, however, is confident that his team will bounce back in the second leg in Kuala Lumpur to claim a victory on aggregate.

"We played 90 minutes here and lost but we have another match in KL. If we want to qualify, we have to score two goals without conceding any. My team are capable of doing it in Bukit Jalil," added Rajagobal, who handed Terengganu's Ismail Faruqi Ashari his first international cap yesterday.

Singapore coach Radojko Avramovic was not pleased with his team's second half performance.

"My players used their heads in the first half but they threw everything away after the breather. We will need to fight on in the second leg," he said.

Safee's early strike failed to deter Singapore as they levelled proceedings after seven minutes through Duric, who sneaked away from his marker before slotting home from a Qiu Li free kick.

Malaysia conceded another free kick at the edge of the penalty box after 22 minutes. Qi Li stepped up and curled the ball around the Malaysian wall for the lead.

The visitors switched off again after 44 minutes, allowing Singapore to add two more goals through Shi Jiayi and Mustafic Fahrudin before the breather.

The frustrated Malaysian fans showed their anger by throwing empty plastic bottles on Singapore supporters after the fourth goal but enforcement officers managed to control the situation.

Matters threatened to turn even worse for Malaysia when skipper Safiq Rahim was sent off four minutes into the restart for a brutal foul on Harris Harun. Thankfully for Malaysia, the numerical disadvantage only lasted four minutes as referee Nawaf Shukralla then sent off Sinagpore's Ismail Yunos for a second bookable offence.

However, Rajagobal had made what turned out to be a master stroke at the restart when he sent on Abdul Hadi Yahya and Amirulhadi Zainal, who injected more pace into Malaysia's game with the former reducing the deficit with a superb goal in the 69th minute.

Safee then made it 3-4 with a powerful strike from inside the box a minute later and Malaysia were back in the tie.

An equaliser eluded Malaysia though as Duric then made it 5-3 in the 81st minute but it could have been much worse and Malaysia have to believe that they can still do it.