It was a convincing opening group win for Malaysia U15 in their bid to reach the 2020 AFC U16 Championship in Bahrain.
It was the perfect result for P. Maniam in the opening match of Group J, where the three points and high goal margin was what the team was looking to get from the match, and they did just that. With only the top place in the group guaranteed of a place in the finals next year, it was vital that Malaysia start well.
The Young Tigers started strongly and were already ahead by the seventh minute of the match when Adam Uwais put Malaysia in front. Adam Farhan (16′) and Akid Zamri (22′, 30′) added to the score to make it 4-0 at half time. Further goals from Harry Danish (52′), Nabil Qayyum (64′) and Khairil Zain (90′) completed a 7-0 rout for Malaysia.
Understandably, Maniam was pleased with what his boys have shown, going on to explain that his team reaped a lot of benefit from the support that they received from the stands but also stressed that nothing is achieved yet as focus turns to the next match.
“It’s a good result for Malaysia U15, we beat Cambodia 7-0 and we can see a lot of positive things in the team. We worked as a team and the players were really committed. We are happy with the performance of the players. We are thankful to the parents of the players who are here supporting as well as the fans who are here, the players appreciate their presence here.
“Now we concentrate on recovering the players well and make sure they are fresh for the next game. So tomorrow (Thursday) is all about recovery – the ice bath, massage and all those things. And these players will be watching videos of Laos and we will prepare what we need to prepare,” said Maniam after the match.
Malaysia will take on Laos in Friday’s encounter in the second game of the group. The other match that was played on Wednesday saw Japan beating Laos 4-0. While it is only after one match, it augurs well for Malaysia that they already have a +3 goal difference better than the Japanese team.
Both Malaysia and Japan are expected to continue their winning streaks against respective opponents on match day two before facing each other in what is likely to be the group decider on Sunday.
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