Narrow Win Over S'pore Provided Valuable Lessons On Areas To Improve - Cklamovski

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 (Bernama) -- National football squad head coach Peter Cklamovski described the narrow 2-1 victory over traditional rivals Singapore in a Tier 1 international friendly tonight as a valuable lesson for the Harimau Malaya squad ahead of their upcoming matches.

The Australian coach praised his team's performance but stressed that there were still many areas for improvement after they allowed the opponent to reduce the deficit.

"No game is easy and we felt that tonight. We respect the opposition and we learned a lot of lessons that we can take with us for the next game," he said at a press conference after the match at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium.

"But it's good to get the win and overall, there are a lot of positives, although there are some things that need to be improved,” he added.

In the match, Malaysia opened the scoring in the 26th minute through a goal by Stuart Wilkin, followed by Joao Figueiredo in the 55th minute, before Singapore managed to narrow the gap through Ilhan Fandi in the 72nd minute.

Meanwhile, Singapore head coach Gavin Lee admitted that Malaysia showed higher quality than his team in the match.

"We were expecting a difficult game from them and it's a good lesson for us to fight for the AFC Asian Cup 2027 Qualifiers next month.

"Performance-wise, we were not calm at certain moments while they had good quality upfront," he added.

Malaysia will next face Palestine in another Tier 1 international friendly at the Sultan Ibrahim Stadium in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, next Monday.

-- BERNAMA