KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 — Malaysia’s World Cup qualifying campaign started with a 5-2 loss to Argentina.

Shahril Saabah’s field goal in the seventh and Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin Tengku Abdul Jalil’s deflected shot off a penalty corner in the 18th minutes helped keep the Tigers in the game going into halftime after Argentina’s penalty corner specialist Gonzalo Peillat put two past them in the fourth and 11th minutes.

However, the Argentines came out in the second half with guns blazing, Peillat adding another two goals from set pieces while Facundo Callioni added a field goal in the 49th to complete the rout.

"We are a bit disappointed,” said coach Stephen van Huizen.

"When we came in at halftime I thought we could steal a point.

"They are the world No 1 side and Peillat showed when you give him penalty corners, they’re hard to defend.

"The boys put up a good show, they fought till the end. Maybe a little bit of lost concentration because we weren’t happy with some of the umpiring decisions.”

It was the second win for Argentina. On Thursday, they beat South Korea 2-1 to all but guarantee their spot in the quarterfinals as they top Pool A with six points.

The odds were always going to be stacked against Malaysia in their first two games. They next face hosts England.

"We knew going into this tournament the start will be tough. We’ll put this match behind us and start preparing for England.

"Most important for us now is rehydration, recovery and rest. We will be looking closely at videos of England and prepare ourselves.”

As it stands, Argentina are top followed by England on three points while South Korea, China and Malaysia have yet to get on the board.

The top four from each group move into the quarterfinals and a step closer to next year’s World Cup. 

Meanwhile in another match China stunned South Korea 5-2 yesterday.

Su Lixing opened the scoring for China from a penalty corner, Su Jun then following up with two field goals. E Liguang and Guo Zixiang rounding up the scoring for the Chinese.

The Koreans goals were score by Yang Jihun and Hwang Weonki.