High intensity: Malaysia’s Stuart Wilkin pressing Jordan’s Noor al-Rawabdeh during their Group E match on Monday. — AFP
PETALING JAYA: Once bitten, twice shy. With that in mind, Malaysian football team midfielder Stuart Wilkin has reminded his teammates that they simply can’t afford to make the same defensive mistakes when they take on Bahrain in the decisive second Group E match at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha tomorrow.
Malaysia suffered a crushing 4-0 loss to Jordan on Monday in their Asian Cup opener in Doha and can forget about their dreams of advancing to the knockout stage (last 16) unless they can overcome Bahrain.
But that’s a tall order as Bahrain are ranked 86th in the world and are also seeking their first win after losing 1-3 to South Korea on Monday.
Wilkin, however, said no matter how daunting the task at hand is, the Harimau Malaya can’t lie down wounded and must show their true stripes in the do-or-die clash.
“We have put the defeat to Jordan behind us. We had a good few days of recovery after the painful loss,” said the player of Malaysian and English parentage.
“It’s true that our weaknesses were exposed against Jordan and we need to take these issues into account so that it does not happen again.
“Jordan used the experience they had to beat us. They made the most of the opportunities that came in the first half to score early.
“We were caught off-guard and we’ve learnt something from this to make sure it won’t happen again in the next match with Bahrain.”
Wilkin was seen by many as the only national player who stood out throughout the opening clash against Jordan.
He also had several scoring chances and contributed many accurate passes at the Jordan goalmouth.
Malaysia are playing in the Asian Cup on merit for the first time since 1980 but are among the lowest ranked teams in the tournament.
After Bahrain, the world No. 130 Harimau Malaya will have to face 2002 World Cup semi-finalists South Korea, captained by Tottenham star Son Heung-min on Jan 25.
