KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 2 — National football squad captain Mohamad Faisal Abdul Halim has declared that the Harimau Malaya squad intends to do whatever it takes to emerge victorious in their Asean Football Federation (AFF) Cup Group B decider against Singapore tomorrow night.
He said the national squad was very motivated to win the Causeway Derby at National Stadium, Bukit Jalil here after putting the defeat against Vietnam in Hanoi last week behind them.
“We were all very down when we came back from Vietnam, and the coaches saw that, but we managed to re-energise ourselves two days later.
“I would like to tell my fellow teammates that tomorrow is an important match on our own turf and we cannot lose (as) our families and fans are watching, we shouldn’t make it easy for our opponents to just win it here,” he said at a pre-match media conference here today.
The new Selangor FC player said the team was still wondering how Singapore managed a goaless draw against Vietnam last Friday when they themselves fell 3-0 to the Golden Star Warriors.
Mohamad Faisal said the draw did pile pressure on Malaysia, but he was optimistic that they had a chance to win if they remained disciplined and carried out their coaches’ instructions.
He also cited Malaysia’s match against Turkmenistan in the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers as an example of how their fighting spirit and discipline fueled the team to a cosy 3-1 victory.
“We have beaten Turkmenistan and qualified for the Asian Cup, so tomorrow we’ll beat Singapore and we’ll go all out and qualify for the semifinals. We want our fans to be happy and it will be a great new year’s present to them,” the 24-year-old said.
Four time champions Singapore need only a draw to qualify for the semifinals, as they are currently second with a one point advantage over Malaysia, who have six points.
Singapore won 2-1 the last time the two teams met during a friendly in March last year, which was the first defeat the team had under head coach Kim Pan Gon. — Bernama
