MELAKA, 6 Sept 2017:
Malaysia deserved to win in the Asian Cup 2019 Qualifiers game against Hong Kong as the team dominated the game last night and created many chances – but poor finishing and mistakes by the players denied them victory, said Malaysia head coach Nelo Vingada.
The Portugese said this is the normal cruel fate of football Harimau Malaya had to face when so many shots at the goal did not result in an increase the scoreline, but nevertheless he was satisfied with the team’s performance.
“Look, in football shooting 30, 40 at the goal but finishing with a nil-nil (0-0) draw happens, it’s cruel but it is part of football that we must face and improve on so that it will never happen again in the future.
“Finishing and mistakes did let us down but tonight we made a lot of chances and dominate the game, it is a lot of improvement and I truly believe we deserved a win tonight,” he told the post-match press conference.
Malaysia drew 1-1 against Hong Kong in the match at the Hang Jebat Stadium here last night.
Vingada said in preparing for the game against North Korea, he will focus on improving the mentality of the players because it will be a very tough game on their home ground in Pyongyang on Oct 5.
“I once brought the Jordanian team to play there, I don’t think there will be a lot of problems regarding the logistics but we must have a strong mentality to play there.”
In preparing the team for the next game, he and his team will evaluate and include young players especially from the Under-22 SEA Games team.
Asked about the move by Hong Kong to field seven naturalised players in their team, Vingada said it is up to the team to field players according to the Fifa rules.
“If they comply with the rules so let it be, but for us in Malaysia we will stick with using players that have the Malaysian heritage, we want to built Malaysian players.”
– Bernama