KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — After a successful World Cup qualifying campaign, Malaysia have set their sights on the making the cut for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Malaysia were guaranteed of their spot at next year’s World Cup by reaching the semifinals of the World League Semifinal in London that ended on Sunday.

They upset the odds by beating India 3-2 in the quarterfinals, their 20th win against the Asian powerhouse in 114 matches.

Buoyed by those accomplishments, national coach Stephen van Huizen said he was looking forward to the Olympic Games qualifiers.

Malaysia, however, can gain direct intry into the Olympics by winning the 2018 Asian Games gold medal.

"Based on the tournament in London we finished the highest among Asian countries. Japan have a chance to surpass Malaysia as they play in the second World League Semifinal in Johannesburg (next month),” said Stephen.

"You can see the quality of the Asian countries. There’s not a big gap. We beat a good South Korean team by a solitary goal, India 3-2 and didn’t play Pakistan. So we can’t really say were the best or are No 1 in Asia.

"The two big competitions offering ranking points next year are the Asian Games and World Cup.

"We know a direct route to the Olympics is by winning the Asian Games next year. However, every other country will be looking at the same thing as us. So it won’t be easy.

"If you don’t get the gold medal the next route is through the qualifiers. Those are never easy,” he said.

The Tigers’ World Cup qualification have given them a boost to challenge for gold in the Asian Games and also compete with the best in the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast next year.

Watching his team come back from the brink of elimination has put things in perspective for Stephen.

"We thought we were very fit as we did a lot of work on fitness but we can see the level of play from countries like world No 1 Argentina and Holland is higher,” explained Stephen.

"Since we started our programme in 2015 (when Stephen was reappointed national coach),  we have now reached a good level.

"To challenge the teams in the top six, our fitness level has to go up and we have to make more decisive in crucial situations.

"Our penalty corner conversion has improved but teams like Argentina and England get the better of us due to their physical strength,” added the 57-year-old.

Malaysia converted nine of the 31 penalty corners they earned in London with specialist drag flicker Razie Rahim topscoring with five goals.