Asian Cup: Malaysia ready to bounce back against Bahrain
From Ahmad Nazrin Syahmi Mohamad Arif
DOHA, Jan 18 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian national football team have put behind the painful defeat to Jordan in the opening match of Group E in the 2023 Asian Cup and are ready to make amends when facing Bahrain at the Jassim Bin Hammad Stadium this Saturday.
Striker Darren Lok, who is determined to get on the score sheet in the next game, admitted there was a sombre mood in the team for a couple of days after the 0-4 defeat to Jordan in the opening fixture on Monday.
However, the 33-year-old striker said the national players were ready to bounce back with a victory to revive their chances of advancing to the Round of 16.
"It's time now to get ready for the next game, we can't continue to feel down and upset about the results, we have to focus on the next one. I always want to go out there and score and do the best for Malaysia, that's my job to score, so I will give my best as always (if selected to play).
"We know it's not going to be an easy game, Bahrain are strong opponents, similar ranking to Jordan, so we need to go out and correct the things that went wrong against Jordan and give a better performance," he told Malaysian media when met at the team's hotel here, Thursday.
Commenting further, Darren who has notched six goals for Malaysia since his debut in 2016, said he did not mind teaming up with any player in the attacking department as the most important thing was to ensure the success of the tactical gameplan.
"It doesn't matter who I'm playing with, we are all professional footballers, we've had long enough training together to understand how all of us play," said Darren, who scored the winning goal when Malaysia beat Taiwan 1-0 in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers last November.
Meanwhile, defender Mohd Shahrul Mohd Saad said that an early goal against Bahrain - nicknamed the Dilmun’s Warriors - would brighten Malaysia's chances of securing a victory.
The 30-year-old player also hopes to get on the score sheet in the game.
“Certainly (to score a goal), as a player, we must aim for something for ourselves. I feel that maybe this is my last time playing in the Asian Cup campaign, we don't know what will happen in the next edition and I am also getting older, ” he said.
For the record, Malaysia have lost to Bahrain in their last three encounters since 2013, with the last meeting seeing Bahrain win 2-1 in the 2023 Asian Cup Qualifiers at Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur in 2022.
Bahrain is currently ranked 86th in the world, while Malaysia is 130th.
Following the match against Bahrain, Kim Pan Gon’s men will close the group stage challenge against two-time champions South Korea on Jan 25.
-- BERNAMA
