Malaysian national team boss, Tan Cheng Hoe expressed his satisfaction towards the performance of his men, despite them falling to a 1-2 defeat at the hands of Lebanon in Beirut on Tuesday night.
Merely four days after a drabby 2-2 draw against Mongolia, Cheng Hoe’s Malaysian’s squad, which contained nine new faces who had only trained for three days, put on a credible performance against a more superior Lebanese side. In fact, the home side were only able to clinch victory through a 94th minute strike.
A legion of new faces impressed during the game, including Kedah’s Akram Mahinan and Kuala Lumpur’s Irfan Zakaria. And as far as Cheng Hoe is concerned, this is the new generation of Malaysian players who are going to feature regularly in his plans.
“To play for the first time after only training for three days, my players played tremendously against Lebanon. You have to give them praises because they really worked their socks off. We know Lebanon are far better than us, but this is the quality of our side. This is the next generation of our national team,” Cheng Hoe was quoted as saying by local daily, Arena Metro.
Malaysia will conclude their national team training camp with one final friendly game against Bhutan this weekend. This match is scheduled take place on Sunday, 1st of April with kick-off slated for 8.45PM at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
