Azri G. & Co. qualified for the semi-finals of the 31st South East Asian (SEA) Games football competition in Vietnam, despite being held 2-2 by neighbours Singapore, after Thailand did them a great favour by thrashing Cambodia 5-0 in Saturday’s late match, mathematically confirming the War Elephants and the Harimau Muda as representatives from Group B to the knock-out stages.
The Young Lions, playing their final preliminary match, needed to win and hope for other results of the day go their way, but neither materialised, though they were 12 minutes from registering a victory that would have made things really interesting on the last day of the group fixtures. The Malaysian under-23’s, retain leadership going into the Match Day 5, a point ahead of Thailand, and a win against Cambodia on Sunday, would see Indonesia waiting for Brad Maloney’s side in the last four unless they prefer to meet the hosts and defending champions. However, Thailand retain that advantage in the event Maloney decides so, as they play in the later kick-off on that day.
It was a lively affair in the Causeway Derby at Hanoi’s Thien Truong Stadium. Malaysia went ahead within 4 minutes of play through Luqman Hakim, after skipper Mukhairi Ajmal robbed the ball off Harhys Stewart at the edge of the box, capitalising on a huge miscommunication between the Singaporean defender and his goalkeeper Zaiful Abdullah, before squaring to Danial Asri, but Muhammad bin Sanizal went in with a superb tackle to stop him from bundling the sitter into an open goal, though there was no stopping the overseas based Luqman, picking up the loose ball, rounding past the fallen Muhammad, and smashing home for his third goal in this venue.
The boisterous crowd had their monies worth when our southern neighbours were back on level terms less than 3 minutes later. Shah Shahiran with a scorcher from 20 metres into the top right corner, giving Azri G. no chance at all. The Yellow And Black’s Safwan Mazlan lost the ball on the right in the final third to Mohammad Najeeb, who then fed Chua Ming Xun. The latter found playmaker Glenn Kweh Jia Jin who pulled it away from the danger area, smartly teeing up Shah who had all the time in the world to plan his outside foot shot to perfection.
Malaysia then had the bulk of the chances to regain the lead and fortify it, but slack finishing saw them trooping off the pitch tied at the break.
Firstly in the 25th minute, Luqman reacted swiftly to a through ball played behind the Reds’ backline into the danger zone, and cut it back to set-up the unmarked Azrin Afiq, who completely miskicked his attempt, though the ball sailed on to find Daniel’s run with a near post attempt from inside the box that Zaiful did well to parry for a corner.
Six minutes later, Luqman was the guilty party. The move began with Nik Akif from the middle of Singapore’s half, finding Daniel near the top of the ‘D’, and the latter spotting Luqman’s run into the box, timely released the ball into the path of the No. 10, for a one to one with the keeper who came out tops.
Going on a driving run into Singapore territory in the 34th minute, Luqman then turns creator when he cuts in from the left, then exchanges passes with Daniel at the top of the box, relaying it to Nik Akif who spreads it to the right for Syahir Bashah to have a crack on goal on the turn at the edge of the penalty area, a tame effort that Zaiful gathered comfortably.
Three minutes from that, Quentin Cheng from rightback sends a long ball from inside Malaysia’s half, finding Luqman in acres of space down the left. He cuts into the box taking the opponents defence in his direction then surprises with a wicked backheel that meets skipper Mukhairi’s diagonal run, but his low shot failed to find the target, straying past the outside of the right post.
Late in injury time of the first period, it was Harith Haiqal’s turn to be wasteful. After rising highest to meet Mukhairi’s corner from the left, his headed effort did not manage to trouble the Young Lions at all.
In the second half, the Harimau Muda continued to apply pressure on Singapore, looking for the winner and wanting to seal early qualification from the group, but again their finishing was wanting. Singapore though, were no bystanders waiting to roll over, and played with plenty of aggression in this emotionally charged affair that produced several minor on-field altercations.
With a quarter of the match to go, Azri G. did well to rush out of his area and make himself big to force Glenn into rushing a shot that sailed high above the crossbar, after being played in superbly from a through ball by Joel Chew Joon Herng that caught the leftback on the wrong side.
It was a warning of things to come as three minutes later, to Malaysia’s horror, Singapore seized the lead. From a freekick situation on the left midway in our half, Nur Shahiran swung the ball to the far post, and despite piling bodies in the box, Maloney will be utterly disappointed that his entire defence including Azri G. just ball watched, allowing Stewart, and perhaps to latter’s surprise too, the simplest task of sliding it into the net. Azri G. once again stood tall, saving with his feet, but the rebound fell kindly for Stewart to have a second stab that sent waves of jubilation throughout the Red’s bench.
Unperturbed by the disappointment earlier, Malaysia stepped up gear for the equaliser and almost drew level three minutes later. Collecting a forward pass freekick from inside our half, Syafik Ismail skipped past two challenges, rushing into Singapore’s box from the right, then delivers an outswinging cross, headed into the post, ending with Mukhairi’s overhead kick coming off a Singaporean for a corner. Nik Akif flighted in the resultant set-piece which Faiz Amer rose and grabbed a share of the spoils for Malaysia. It was a late escape, but it could have been different had Maloney’s boys converted their chances especially during the first passage of play.
In the other Group B encounter between Thailand and Cambodia, the Thais raced to a 3-0 lead by the break, with goals from Chonnaphat Buaphan (4th minute), Korawit Tasa (31st) and Worachit Kanitsribamphen (41st). Patrick Gustavsson scored twice in the second period (72nd, 88th), to round up an emphatic victory over the Million Elephants.
On Friday in Group A, Myanmar fell to Vietnam through a solitary goal, their first loss in the tournament, while Indonesia thrashed the Philippines 4-0. With Vietnam playing Timor Leste in the final round of group fixtures on Sunday, it is given fact that the young Golden Star Warriors would finish this group as winners, leaving Indonesia and Myanmar who play each other this weekend, to decide who accompanies them to the semi-finals.
The next round of matches in both groups are as follows,
Group A, on Sunday : Indonesia Vs Myanmar, Timor Leste Vs Vietnam, Rest/Completed : Philippines
Group B, on Monday : Malaysia Vs Cambodia, Laos Vs Thailand, Rest/Completed : Singapore
The top two nations of each group will qualify to the semifinals on the May 19, 2022, and the final three days later on May 22, 2022.
Malaysia were gold medal winners of the football competition for 4 times in 1961, 1977, 1979 & 1989 before it became an age restricted competition from the 2001 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur (2001-2015 Under-23, 2017-2019 Under-22). Since the rule change, the Harimau Muda won twice in 2009 and 2011. In the 2019 Manila SEA Games, the Harimau Muda crashed out of the competition at the group stage, finishing second from bottom in a group that had Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines and Timor Leste. The last SEA Games medal the Harimau Muda picked up in football was a silver, after the 1-0 loss to Thailand in the 2017 final at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.