Dominant Malaysia beat lacklustre Lions

By Gabriel Tan

Shakir Ali opened the scoring for Harimau Malaya after 19 minutes when he found the back of the net with a terrific glancing header, before midfield general Safiq Rahim made sure of the result in the 62nd minute when he fired an unstoppable freekick into the top corner.

In doing so, Malaysia also recorded their first win over Radojko Avramovic's charges since 2004, after missing a good opportunity to do so when they let their two-goal lead slip in last Friday's 2-2 draw at the Jalan Besar Stadium in the first leg of the Causeway Challenge.

While he insisted there would not be too many new faces in his starting XI, Malaysia coach K. Rajagobal made three changes to the side he fielded last Friday, with the most notable of them being the inclusion of Shakir for star striker Safee Sali.

And within three minutes, the Negri Sembilan striker nearly made an instant impact as he latched onto a slide-rull pass from Safiq and fired in a shot on the turn that was tipped just wide by Hyrulnizam Juma'at.

Seven minutes later, Harimau captain Safiq once again carved open the Lions backline with a clever ball into the path of Norshahrul Idlan Talaha, but the Kelantan forward could only poke his shot over after cutting inside Baihakki Khaizan.

However, given the way they were dominating, it seemed only a matter of time before the hosts took the lead and that duly happened in the 19th minute when Norshahrul went on a jinking run down the left before dinking a lovely ball into the box for Shakir, who flicked a brilliant header beyond Hyrulnizam's despairing dive and into the far corner.

The goal was no less than Malaysia deserved for their strong start but just three minutes later, Singapore almost equalised when Aleksandar Duric forced Khairul Fahmi Che Mat into a smart save after being played through by Shahdan Sulaiman.

However, apart from that brief scare, Malaysia remained completely in control of the game and they nearly doubled their lead ten minutes before the break when Safiq, who had scored a peach of a freekick last Friday, curled a similar effort around the wall, only to see Hyrulnizam push it away with a good reaction save at his far post.

Nonetheless, there was to be no denying the Selangor playmaker two minutes after the hour mark when Harimau were once again awarded a freekick outside the area. From all of 25 yards, Safiq unleashed a terrific swerving strike that dipped ferociously into the top corner to double the hosts' advantage.

And things went from bad to worse for Singapore six minutes later when Mustafic received a straight red for a late challenge on Norshahrul, although Bunyamin Umar was extremely lucky not to be handed his marching orders after barging into the back of the Lions midfielder in anger.

With the result all but over with the Lions reduced to ten men, Rajagobal brought on Safee in hope he would manage to end his recent international goal drought, and the Pelita Jaya marksman nearly did just that a minute from time when he raced through on goal after making his way past Baihakki and Daniel Bennett. However, Hyrulnizam rushed out well to smother at his feet although that missed opportunity did little to dampen the joy from the Malaysia camp after ending eight years of hurt against their Causeway rivals.

Malaysia: Khairul Fahmi Che Mat, Bunyamin Umar (Mahalli Jasuli 78'), Aidil Zafuan, Amirizwan Taj Tajuddin (Faizal Muhammad 82'), Fadhli Shas (Sabre Mat Abu 90'), Azamuddin Akil (Shahurain Abu Samah 65'), K. Gurusamy, Safiq Rahim, S. Kunanalan, Norshahrul Idlan Talaha (Shakir Shaari 85'), Shakir Ali (Safee Sali 65').

Singapore: Hyrulnizam Juma'at, Raihan Rahman (Safirul Sulaiman 46'), Daniel Bennett, Baihakki Khaizan, Irwan Shah, Firdaus Kasman (Agu Casmir 46'), Isa Halim, Mustafic Farudin, Shahdan Sulaiman, Qiu Li (Ahmed Fahmie 79'), Aleksandar Duric.