National football team captain Safiq Rahim (centre) training with his team-mates at Wisma FAM on Sunday in preparation for the World Cup qualifying match against Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
PETALING JAYA: It won’t happen again.
National skipper Safiq Rahim and his team-mates have promised to do all they can to prevent another mauling when they take on Saudi Arabia in the 2018 World Cup qualifying Asian Zone Group A match at the Shah Alam Stadium on Tuesday (8.45pm).
“Everyone has the right to be angry with us ... we should not have lost by such a humiliating margin (10-0) to the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi. We are hurt as well.
“We admit it’s our fault, but all of us want to make amends for the embarrassing loss to UAE and put up an improved performance against Saudi,” said Safiq, who is expected to man the heart of the engine room with Junior Eldstal.
The national team have come under fire from every corner after last Thursday’s capitulation. Coach Dollah Salleh has resigned and Datuk Ong Kim Swee has been named interim coach.
With world No. 93 Saudi Arabia also in fine form, having thrashed Timor Leste 7-0 in Jeddah last week, Safiq and Co will have their work cut out for them.
Malaysia are virtually out of contention after collecting only one point from three matches. They began their campaign at home in June in disastrous fashion, drawing 1-1 with minnows Timor Leste and getting hammered 6-0 by war-torn Palestine.
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