KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 6 — National squad winger Muhammad Akhyar Abdul Rashid says he and his teammates were looking to prove their capability in the 2020 Asean Football Federation (AFF) Cup championship campaign in Singapore.

The Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) player said this was the main factor which led to the Harimau Malaya’s convincing win 3-1 win over Cambodia in their opening Group B fixture at the Bishan Stadium, this afternoon.

"In this afternoon’s game, we gave our best because we are ‘local players’ right, so we want to show what we have,” said the man of the match during the press conference after the action, today.

He said that the difference between the Harimau Malaya squad playing in the AFF 2020 Cup and the previous one was the presence of more local talent in the team, with striker Guilherme De Paula being the only naturalised player in the team in Singapore.

In today’s action, Muhammad Akhyar’s slick and quick run tore apart the Cambodian defence, and he was finally fouled in the penalty box, leading to Muhammad Safawi Rasid scoring the spot-kick for the national squad’s first goal in the 23rd minute.

The 22-year-old then put his name on the scoresheet in the 61st minute through a superb counter-attacking move that saw him deceive two opposing defenders before firing a shot past Keo Soksela in goal.

"Thank God for the performance of the team and myself, what is important is that we have done our best and given 100 per cent, as mentioned by the coach. In the first half we struggled a bit to adjust, but managed to overcome it in the second half, "said Muhammad Akhyar.

Meanwhile, national head coach Tan Cheng Hoe was delighted with the team’s overall performance as well as the character shown by his men.

"I think they showed very good character, and we won this game and need to move on preparing ourselves for the next match.

"We have two days rest, and the most important thing as a coach is I want the players to remain focused. It was a good start for us, and definitely, we need to improve certain areas, we still have a lot of weaknesses to improve and we have to be ready for the next game against Laos,” said the 53-year-old coach.

Malaysia will face Laos on Thursday before playing against defending champions Vietnam on December 12 and rounding up the group stage against Indonesia on December 19. — Bernama