Cup final a huge test for Harimau Malaya, says Cheng Hoe

BANGKOK: Malaysia coach Tan Cheng Hoe (pic) reckons that taking the next step and winning the AFF Suzuki Cup will be another huge test for his side.

The 10-men Harimau Malaya advanced to the final on away goals after holding defending champions Thailand 2-2 on aggregate in the second leg semi-final on Wednesday.

“The players and the team are improving in everything. You can see they’re progressing together. In the final, we play at home first. We need to take our chances there and we need to keep playing the way we’ve been playing and keep up the good momentum,” said Cheng Hoe in the post-match press conference.

The former international said that cool heads were the key to his side prevailing in Bangkok.

The War Elephants were awarded a penalty deep into added time and they had the perfect opportunity to go through as the second leg was tied 2-2 at the Rajamangala Stadium.

But even then, Cheng Hoe still believed his side would go through to the final and his faith was justified when Adisak Kraisorn skied his spot-kick.

“I was calm ... I was hopeful that Farizal (Marlias) would save the penalty because we had watched videos of Adisak taking penalties.

“In the first half, the players did very well to keep the score at 1-1. In the second half, the players were composed and showed good tactical discipline. So in the end it was an amazing result.”

Meanwhile, Thailand coach Milovan Rajevac conceded that Malaysia were worthy finalists.

“I’m not satisfied since we didn’t qualify for the final but it’s another experience for the players,” said Rajevac.

“I want to congratulate the Malaysian team. They deserve to be in the final. In both matches, they showed more determination and aggressiveness ... they wanted to reach the final so much.

“We had the penalty but didn’t convert it, so we were a little unlucky in the end. I was thinking about changing the penalty taker to someone who was a bit more fresh but we had an agreement before the match that Adisak would take them. It was unlucky for him that he missed.”