Malaysia beat Indonesia 4-1 in U-19 qualifier
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Under-19 (U-19) team beat Indonesia’s U-19 team 4-1 in a qualifying match of the 2018 AFC U-19 Championship in Paju, South Korea, yesterday.
The Young Tigers (Harimau Muda) opened the score as early as the seventh minute when striker Hadi Fayyadh Abdul Razak converted a spot kick.
Another striker, Akhyar Rashid doubled the score to put Malaysia 2-0 up in the 34th minute.
Indonesia, who get automatic qualification for being the host country in 2018, closed the gap two minutes before the end of the first half (43 min), via Hanis Saghara Putra.
Immediately after the break, the squad under head coach Bojan Hodak bagged the third goal when defender Shivan Pillay got onto the scoresheet in the 47th minute.
Five minutes later (52 min), striker Hadi Fayyadh got his second goal via another spot kick to disappoint Indonesia’s goalkeeper, Gianluca Pagliuca Rossy.
Malaysia started their qualifying campaign with a 3-1 win over Timor Leste on Tuesday, before edging Brunei 1-0, and will meet the hosts South Korea on Wednesday in the final match.
Only the ten group winners and the five best group runners-up will qualify for the final round in Indonesia, from Oct 8 to Nov 4, 2018.
The top four teams in Indonesia will qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2019.