Malaysia and Indonesia notched comfortable wins in their respective FIFA ASEAN Cup Division 1 Group A matches yesterday.
Malaysia cruised to a 3-0 victory over Bangladesh while Indonesia saw off Singapore 2-0.
Malaysia coach Tan Cheng Hoe named three debutants in his starting XI, but it was an established star who put them in control, and then kept them there.
It took just 18 minutes for Arif Aiman to make his mark, racing onto a lofted Nooa Laine pass and slotting home through the legs of Bangladesh keeper Mehedi Hasan Srabon.
The dazzling winger then doubled Malaysia’s lead, being released by Stuart Wilkin and rifling home a second to send Harimau Malaya into the break in a strong position.
Bergson, a former Brazil youth international making his debut for Malaysia, added a fine third shortly after the restart to put the match all but out of Bangladesh’s reach.
The South Asian nation did have a brief sight of goal late on as Hamza Choudhury forced a smart save out of Haziq Nadzli, but in the end Malaysia proved far too strong in the Group A opener in Jakarta.
Indonesia 2-0 Singapore
It took Indonesia less than a quarter of an hour to make the breakthrough as debutant Luke Vickery burst free down the right and squared the ball for an onrushing Ragnar Oratmangoen to sweep home.
Thereafter, despite their dominance on the ball and a slew of chances created, Indonesia struggled to find a second, as Ole Romeny and then Ragnar Oratmangoen both failed to hit the target from promising positions.
Singapore substitute Song Ui-young had a rare sight of goal for Singapore just shy of the hour mark before the visitors went a player down after Safuwan Baharudin was shown red following a VAR review with 20 minutes remaining.
From the resulting free-kick, Indonesia were awarded a penalty for handball; one dispatched by Romeny to secure maximum points for the hosts.
