ISKANDAR PUTERI, March 26 — National head coach Peter Cklamovski was full of praise for his Harimau Malaya players after Malaysia secured a 2-0 victory over Nepal in their Asian Cup 2027 Qualifiers Group F opener at the Sultan Ibrahim Stadium here last night.
The Australian coach said that despite having limited time to prepare, his men managed to translate their training sessions into a solid performance on the pitch.
However, he admitted that there is still room for improvement ahead of their upcoming matches.
“Good performance, I’m proud of the players, they gave everything and it (was all) connected to everything we did in training. It wasn’t such a long training camp but the players gave everything physically the whole week, (were) very focused mentally as well the whole week and it led to a really strong team performance last night.
“There were many good chances. On another night, perhaps we could have scored more goals. The good thing is that we created many chances and scored two goals, have a clean sheet and take home all three points. We know we still have more work to do and we know we have a lot of potential as well. So, we have to work hard every day to keep improving,” he said at the post-match press conference.
Meanwhile, Nepal head coach Matt Ross accepted the fact that his team lost to a superior opponent and that the gap in quality between Malaysia and his team was evident in last night’s match.
In last night’s clash, new heritage player Hector Hevel put Malaysia ahead in the 29th minute before defender Corbin Ong doubled the lead in the 71st minute to seal victory.
Meanwhile, Vietnam made a strong start to their campaign with a resounding 5-0 win over Laos at the Binh Duong Stadium to top the group standings with three points, level with Malaysia in second place.
Malaysia will next host Vietnam on June 10 before travelling to Laos on Oct 9. — Bernama