KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — National midfielder Brendan Gan has hailed Malaysia for its fighting spirit after Harimau Malaya recorded a 2-1 win over Thailand in the 2022 World Cup/2023 Asian Cup qualifying at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil here last night.

The victory puts Malaysia back on track in their quest to qualify for the final round of the 2023 Asian Cup after a difficult journey in the Group G campaign following defeats to United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Vietnam, last month.

"It was a great performance from the boys. They gave 110 per cent, they showed fighting spirit and the crowd was amazing. The atmosphere was really good and to get a win was very exciting.

"The great thing about this team is whoever came in did the job well. It didn’t matter who started and it didn’t matter who came in from the bench, we all had one goal in mind and that was to win, to qualify for 2023 Asian Cup,” he told reporters after the match.

The 31-year-old Australian-born footballer made an excellent performance and was on the scoresheet when he scored the equaliser in the 26th minute to deny Thai Chanatip Songkrasin’s opener only seven minutes into the game.

He then provided a brilliant pass which saw Thailand’s defence flat-footed before Pahang’s winger Mohamadou Sumareh fired home the winning goal in the 56th minute.

"To me it doesn’t matter who scored and who assisted as long as we get to be the winner at the end of the day,” he said.

Ahead of the meet with Indonesia at the National Stadium next Tuesday, Gan urged all players to keep their focus to clinch another victory to improve the chance to qualify for the 2023 Asian Cup final round.

"It’s very exciting to win this time but our job is not done yet. We still have Indonesia (to deal with) and we need to focus on that,” he said.

Malaysia currently stand in fourth place sharing six points with the UAE while Thailand is on second place with seven points. Vietnam tops Group G with 10 points. — Bernama