Malaysia bounced back from their opening match loss, to stun Indonesia 1-0 in their Group A match at the ASEAN Boy’s Under-17 football championships at the Gelora Joko Samudro in Gresik, East Jawa.
In another Group A match, Vietnam, who had beaten Malaysia 4-0 in their opening match, thrashed Timor Leste 10-0.
Malaysia’s solitary goal in the match against Indonesia came in the 33rd minute off a corner. Muhammad Fareez headed in the ball pass Indonesian keeper Noah Leo, off the corner taken by Nur Azam.
Despite dominating with their attacking game, Indonesia, who had beaten Timor Leste 4-0 in their opening match, were unable to breach the tight Malaysian defence.
Vietnam play Indonesia in the final group match while Malaysia takes on wooden spoonist Timor Leste on Sunday.
Indonesia, need an unlikely huge win over Vietnam to stand a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals. As for Malaysia, they also need to win similarly by a big margin to erase Vietnam’s huge goal difference.
But a draw or win for Vietnam, would see them stepping into the semi-finals as group leaders
Earlier, Chu Ngoc Nguyen Luc and Nguyen Van Duong picked up hattricks in Vietnam’s huge win over Timor Leste.
Nguyen Luc struck in the 6th, 32nd and 85th minutes while Van Duong was on target in the 67th, 72nd and 81st minutes.
The marauding Vietnamese led 4-0 in the first half with Le Trong Dai Nanh finding the net in the 20th minute and Tran Ngoc Son on target in the 24th minute.
Tran Tri Dung and Truong Nguyen Duy Khang piled on the misery for Timor Leste with goals in the 61st and 70th minutes.
