Malaysia beat Lebanon 2-1 on aggregate last night at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil and booked a place in the final round qualifiers.
Lebanon was the favorite team and Malaysia playing with only 10-men for the most of the second half earlier played to a goal-less draw in the 1st leg last week.
The home side had to pull-off a gutsy performance when midfielder Gary Steven Robbat was sent off for a second bookable offense 6 minutes into the second half.
It was a different performance though from the home team. They took the lead through Mohd Irfan Fazail in the 9th minute with a beautiful half-volley that struck the far corner of the Lebanese goal post. The boys played with more confidence and got their reward with a nice one touch football for the 2nd goal. Gary Steven's through pass was met by Wan Zack Haikal Wan Nor, who later coolly poked the ball into the back of the net.
Both teams went into the dressing room with Malaysia leading 2-0 at half-time.
The Malaysian team had to give an extra effort when Gary, who apparently wasn't able to settle down into the game since the 1st half was given the marching orders by the ref.
They had to play a very disciplined game at the back when Lebanon was bombarding their goal non-stop. They how ever had to let the opponent sneak in 1 goal through Chadi Atie in the 64th minute.
Having winning this tie, Malaysia will be among the 12 teams in Asia to try and book their place into next year's Olympic games in London.
Having qualified for the games way back in 1972(Munich) and 1980(Moscow), this will be the chance for the young Malaysians to prove their worth as the best footballing country in South East Asia.
There's still plenty of work to be done by coach Ong Kim Swee, but with what was shown by the team last night, Malaysia sure have a bright future ahead of them. Go Harimau Muda!!!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.
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