PETALING JAYA: Haziq Nadzli, we are behind you!
That was the message given by Malaysian midfielder Endrick dos Santos (pic) to his teammate and goalkeeper Haziq, who has been on the receiving end of extreme criticism from some netizens.
Haziq’s wife even revealed on social media that some wished that her husband would be paralysed, which shocked her and even asked people to be mindful of their comments.
The 26-year-old Perak goalkeeper, who is on-loan from Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT), made a mistake which led to Thailand scoring and eventually winning against Malaysia 0-1 in their Group A match of the AFF Cup in Bangkok.
“We support him all the time and we have confidence in him. It can happen to any player. We want the nation to support him. He is ready to play if the coach chooses him,” said the 29-year-old Dos Santos, who is the chief playmaker for Malaysia in the AFF Cup.
Malaysia have a chance to qualify for the semi-finals if they beat Singapore in their final group game at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Friday.
Dos Santos, a naturalised Brazilian, said the whole team were watching the Thailand versus Singapore game, where the former beat the latter 3-2 in Singapore on Tuesday.
“We are happy because we still have a chance. We just need to focus on our game. I remember the last AFF, we needed to win against Singapore and we did it,” said the Ho Chi Minh City player, on loan from JDT.
“Singapore are good. Fast and quality players. But we have to focus on ourselves. We have to improve.”
Malaysia would surely hope Dos Santos will come up with some Samba flavour and magical passes to help the nation get to the semi-finals.
