Selangor Journal
Selangor FC defender Sharul Nazeem Zulpakar. — Picture via FACEBOOK/SELANGOR FC

Our starting point to Asian Cup 2023 — Sharul Nazeem

PATHUM THANI, Jan 11 — Malaysia’s elimination in the semi-finals of the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Cup 2022 campaign can be a starting point for all the players who make up the Harimau Malaya squad this time, said defender Sharul Nazeem Zulpakar.

Although the defeat to defending champions Thailand was hard to accept, the young Selangor FC player said all the team’s weaknesses need to be fixed ahead of the 2023 Asian Cup in Qatar which is scheduled to take place in January 2024.

In terms of the team’s performance against Thailand, Sharul Nazeem said that Malaysia came up with the same tactical approach in both semi-final matches thus showing Thailand were the better team overall.

“Of course, we cannot accept this defeat… I think this is the starting point for us… we may have been a little tired but still fought. I am grateful to my teammates who fought all the way, I think there is a lot we need to improve for the Asian Cup.

“The result is probably due to our weaknesses, maybe Thailand know our weaknesses, so we have to improve after what they did to us,” said the 23-year-old player after the second semi-final match at the Thammasat Stadium here last night.

In the all-important clash, the War Elephants won 3 – 0 with prolific striker Teerasil Dangda’s netting the first goal with a header in the 19th minute before winger Bordin Phala and substitute striker Adisak Kraisorn got their names on the scoresheet in the 55th and 71st minutes respectively.

Malaysia, who were champions in 2010, lost on a 1 – 3 aggregate.

Thailand will square off against two-time champions Vietnam in the two-legged final this Friday and Monday.

Commenting further, Sharul Nazeem admitted that there is a difference in quality between the national and Thai players but was proud of their achievement in reaching the semi-finals.

“Some of their players play abroad, their experience is higher compared to us, so they had the edge…but we are still proud to reach the semi-finals, we need to move on and focus on the Asian Cup,” he said.

For the record, the Harimau Malaya coached by Kim Pan Gon at the 2022 AFF Cup was strengthened by many new faces after about 14 key players could not participate due to personal matters, family commitments and injury problems.

Reaching the semi-finals this time saw Malaysia bettering the record of being knocked out in the group stage competition in the last edition, which led to former Head Coach Tan Cheng Hoe resigning.

— Bernama

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