KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — The Harimau Muda under-19 squad booked their spot in the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Under-19 Championships semi-finals after edging past Timor Leste 4-3 in Jakarta, Indonesia tonight.

In the group B match played at the Madya Stadium, Malaysia opened the scoring as early as the ninth minute, through a Muhammad Najmudin Akmal Kamal Akmal freekick.

However, the Timor Leste squad, known as The Rising Sun, equalised just two minutes later through skipper Cristevao Moniz Fernandes, but Malaysia went into the lead again when Adam Farhan Mohd Faizal scored four minutes later.

In the second half, Malaysia, coached by Hassan Sazali Mohd Waras went 3-1 up in the 52nd minute through Muhammad Alif Izwan Yuslan, but yet again allowed Timor Leste to narrow the gap just two minutes after.

In the 63rd minute, Adam Farhan scored Malaysia’s fourth goal but Timor Leste was not done and scored their third through Mario Donasio in the 76th minute. Malaysia, however, defended well to hang on to their lead and the win.

Today’s result saw Malaysia, the 2018 champions in second place in Group B with seven points after recording a 2-1 win over Cambodia in their first match on July 5 and playing Singapore to a scoreless draw two days ago.

Meanwhile, Laos remained in top spot with nine points despite one less match played, while Cambodia and Timor Leste, with three points, are in third and fourth place respectively, followed by Singapore at the bottom with one point.

Harimau Muda will end the group stage match against Laos in another match at 4 pm (Malaysian time) on Monday before playing their semi-finals either against Thailand or Vietnam on July 13. — Bernama