Playing in Bukit Jalil - Malaysia is truly a tough challenge for any Southeast Asian team. The terrible heat with 80,000 spectators is a huge advantage for the Malaysian team. Although the Thais are the "kings" of Southeast Asia, they do not allow themselves to be too confident in themselves. The Thais have read the situation and are too familiar with the feeling on the hot pan of Bukit Jalil.
That is why, instead of choosing a style of play that controlled the ball and imposed an attack, the Thais accepted to retreat quite deep to take the blow. They knew very well that the Malaysians had to score a goal to win if they did not want to be at a disadvantage in the second leg in Thailand.
Malaysia attacked from the very first minutes, they continuously made Chatchai Budprom's goal shake. Especially Mohd Zaquan Adha, this naturalized player made the Thai defense work the hardest with his continuous penetration into the penalty area thanks to his abundant physical strength.
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| Thailand plays very dangerous counter-attacking defense, especially with long passes. Photo: AFF |
However, the Thai defense, which is very strong, has neutralized all the opportunities that the home team had. It must be admitted that the Malaysians still seem to have not learned their lesson after the match against Vietnam. Although they dominated the game better, they could not score a goal. Perhaps they thought that everything was due to the tight play of the Vietnamese defense, not because their strikers themselves did not play well.
What happened at Bukit Jalil Stadium showed one thing, they had many scoring opportunities in this match but their finishing was too bad. Obviously, the Malaysians still lacked a bit of coolness, a bit of softness in the final touches to make things happen. It could also be partly due to their impatience that made Talaha and Mohd Zaquan Adha's finishing shots so unlucky.
As for the Thais, they remained loyal to their leisurely, slow style of play in the midfield, then suddenly accelerated up front with simple long passes for the strikers to penetrate the Malaysian penalty area. The most regrettable situation was probably the situation where Nurul Sriyankem of Thailand shot close to the goal but the ball hit the Malaysian defenders, narrowly over the bar.
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| Malaysia had many shots but were not effective. Photo: AFF |
Fortunately for the home team, that painful scenario did not happen. A match that was too physically exhausting caused both teams to be inaccurate in their final shots.
A 0-0 draw in a match where they were playing better in terms of ball possession (63% compared to 37%), I wonder if coach Tan Cheng Hoe still thinks they are the better team and criticizes the opponent for only chasing the ball like he did when talking about the Vietnamese team. If they do not change the way they evaluate their opponents, it will be very difficult for Malaysia to make a difference in the return match on the field of the "elephants" Thailand./.
Playing pragmatically and ruthlessly, Thailand had a 0-0 draw with Malaysia at Bukit Jalil Stadium, thereby temporarily holding the advantage in the race to the final of the AFF Cup 2018.
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