KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia have left themselves with a mountain to climb in their bid to qualify for the semi-finals of the Nations Cup after losing 3-1 to world number nine France in their second Group B match in Gniezno, Poland yesterday.
With the defeat, national coach Sarjit Singh’s men have only one point to be placed third in the four-team standings, with France sitting at the top with six points while Pakistan (four points) are second and Canada (no points) at the bottom.
According to the tournament format, the top two teams in each group will advance to the semi-finals, which means Malaysia must beat Canada by a huge margin on Wednesday (June 5) and, at the same time, hope for Pakistan to lose to France the next day.
In yesterday’s match, France drew first blood after five minutes with a Timothee Clement penalty corner goal before Malaysian hitman Faizal Saari equalised in the 28th minute.
But the Speedy Tigers’ joy was shortlived as France made it 2-1 through a Francois Goyet field goal in the 43rd minute before Etienne Tyvenes confirmed victory with a penalty stroke goal in the 60th minute.
On Friday (May 31), world number 13 Malaysia blew a three-goal lead to draw 4-4 with Pakistan in their opening Group B match.
There are two groups in the Nations Cup, with five teams in Group A (New Zealand, Poland, Austria, South Africa and South Korea) and four in Group B.
The third and fourth-placed teams from each group will play in the fifth-eighth classification matches. The semi-finals will be on Saturday (June 8) and the final on Sunday (June 9).
Meanwhile, coach Sarjit rued their failure to at least get a draw and admitted that France capitalised on his players’ mistakes to clinch victory.
“A lot of room for improvement for our players (and) we also did not execute the five penalty corners we earned properly.
“We have no choice but to beat Canada in our next game. It’s not impossible for the team to do something in the final group match and all the players must have the winning mentality instilled in them,” he said in a statement issued by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation last night. –BERNAMA
