PETALING JAYA: Once bitten, twice shy. With that in mind, Malaysian football team midfielder Stuart Wilkin will be playing the same when they face Bahrain in the decisive Group E second leg tomorrow at Doha’s Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium. He reminded his teammates that they cannot afford to make defensive mistakes.
Malaysia suffered a crushing 4-0 defeat to Jordan in the opening match of the Asian Cup in Doha on Monday, and if they do not defeat Bahrain, they may forget their dream of making it to the final round (last 16).
But it’s a tall order as Bahrain are ranked 86th in the world and looking for their first win after losing 3-1 to South Korea on Monday.
But Wilkin said that no matter how difficult the task at hand, the Harima Malayans cannot lie down wounded and must prove their true potential in a desperate clash.
“We forgot the loss to Jordan. We were able to recover in a few days after the painful loss,” said the player, who is of Malaysian and British descent.
“It is true that our weaknesses were exposed in the game against Jordan and we need to consider these issues to ensure that something like this never happens again.
“Jordan used his experience to beat us. He took advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves in the first half and scored early.
“We were caught off guard, but we learned something from this so that it doesn’t happen again next time against Bahrain.”
Wilkin was seen by many to be the only international player who stood out throughout the first match against Jordan.
He also created several scoring chances and contributed many accurate passes in Jordan’s goalmouth.
Malaysia are competing in the Asia Cup in a meritocracy for the first time since 1980, but are among the bottom teams in the tournament.
After Bahrain, Harimau Malaya, ranked 130th in the world, must face 2002 World Cup semi-finalists South Korea, captained by Tottenham star Son Heung-min, on January 25.