Football: Malaysia beat Hong Kong 2-0 in international friendly

Safawi Rasid (second from left) celebrates his goal against Hong Kong at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Wednesday. - Photo by FAM

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia produced a dominant performance but wished they had taken their chances against Hong Kong.

Harimau Malaya notched their second straight friendly win by beating Hong Kong 2-0 at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Wednesday (June 1).

Safawi Rasid was the lone goal scorer when he buried a penalty in the 31st minute.

Hong Kong, who looked devoid of ideas, were pegged back in defence thanks to the superb performances of wingers Arif Aiman Hanapi and Akhyar Rashid.

But they wished the chances created would have gone in with Darren Lok being a real threat in the penalty box, but unlucky not to get a goal during the game.

In the second half, Malaysia coach Kim Pan-gon, who once coached Hong Kong, brought on Guilherme De Paula, Mahamadou Sumareh, Safiq Rahim and Faisal Halim in the hope of scoring more goals.

In the 89th minute, Malaysia got their second when a freekick by Safiq was deflected by Hong Kong’s wall into Paulo Cesar’s goal.

Earlier, Malaysia beat Brunei Darussalam 4-0 in another international friendly on May 27.

The Malaysians will now set their sights on the AFC Asian Cup 2023 final round qualifying campaign, which starts on June 8.

They will play Turkmenistan (June 8), Bahrain (June 11) and Bangladesh (June 14). All the games will be played at the National Stadium.

But before that, Pan-gon will announce his final 23 players for the campaign latest by Friday (June 3).