PETALING JAYA, Oct 24 — Coach Bojan Hodak said Malaysia must cut down on “childish mistakes” if they wish to reach the next level after their 2-2 AFC Under-19 Championship draw with Tajikistan yesterday.
Malaysia showed a much better performance from the opening 2-1 Group D loss to Saudi Arabia on Saturday but dropped two precious points due to lapses in concentration.
They led 1-0 thanks to Hadi Fayyadh Abdul Razak before allowing Tajikistan to go 2-1 up with strikes from Ehson Panjshanbe and Daler Yodgorov.
Vahdat Hanonov’s 55th minute own goal then rescued a point for Malaysia.
Hodak told the-afc.com: “We played better than the first game. Tactically we knew what to do but unfortunately, we have these childish mistakes we keep making.
“We had one or two mistakes 13 or 14-year-old kids would make. If you want to go to next level these things aren’t acceptable. When we led 1-0 and controlled the game, we conceded out of nothing.
“Then we just had to wait for (halftime) whistle and we conceded (another). This cannot happen in serious football.”
Both teams ended the match with 10 players following red cards to Nabil Hakim Bokhari and Nurmatov Khuseyn.
Nabil was sent off for a leg-breaking challenge on Ziyovuddin Fuzaylov.
“Everyone will remember this horrible injury the young boy suffered,” said Hodak.
“It was a 50-50 tackle without any bad intentions. I hope he recovers quickly and plays again because what happened wasn’t nice to see.”
The draw kept Malaysia’s hopes of making the knockout stage alive.
They now have one point, three behind second-placed Tajikistan, who they must hope will lose to Saudi Arabia in their final group match tomorrow.
Malaysia have to also take three points against China to make their first quarterfinal appearance since 2004.
