Skipper Baddrol eyes ‘miracle win’ against Japan

NATIONAL Under-23 team skipper Baddrol Bakhtiar vows to steer the team to a quick rebound against Japan to seal a quarter-final spot.

The Kedahan said the 3-2 loss to Bahrain in their final Group E match on Monday was a wake-up call.

“We played with second stringers mostly and lost against Bahrain but what’s important is that we qualified for the last 16,” said Baddrol.

“The team need to bounce back from this loss and regroup against Japan.”

Earlier, Malaysia stunned defending champions South Korea 2-1 in the group stage and Baddrol hopes the team can achieve a similar feat against Japan.

“We’ve beaten South Korea and now we need to repeat that performance for another miracle win.”

Malaysia’s last encounter against Japan in the Asiad was at the 2010 Guangzhou Games when they lost 2-0 in the group stage and Japan eventually became the champions.

This time, Japan, represented by a younger team, fell to a shock 1-0 defeat to Vietnam in Group D on Aug 19 but Baddrol warned his teammates to be on guard.

“We can’t underestimate them. They’re a young team but they’re still formidable,” he said.

“We saw Japan’s match against Vietnam. They’re a team with good fighting spirit and are good in defence. We’ll study their game and will be prepared.”