AFF Cup Final: Cold Weather Engulfs National Team's Camp

HANOI, Dec 14 (Bernama) -- With the advent of the second leg of the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018 on Saturday, the country's squad will not only face the stiff rivalry posed by the Vietnamese team, but the cold weather is also a challenge to be overcome. The city of Hanoi was currently experiencing cold weather of up to 13 degree Celsius at night and every national player must quickly acclimatise before the kick off at the My Dinh Stadium, Hanoi. For tough national defender, Shahrul Mohd Saad, regardless of the weather in Hanoi, his priority was to record a win over the Golden Dragon squad. ‘’Indeed, the weather is very cold, but it is no excuse for the national team not to exhibit an action of quality at the match. ‘’I feel my teammates can quickly get used to the weather and we had played in much colder weather than this before,’’ he told Bernama at the first training session of the squad upon their arrival in Hanoi Thursday night. For the record, Malaysia and Vietnam drew 2-2 at the first final match at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur on Dec 11. In the meantime, Shahrul said the national team’s defence would be more stout to check the assault of the host team with the return of two pillars who could not be fielded in the first final action. ‘’It is a positive development to see Aidil Zafuan Abd Radzak and Muhammad Syazwan Andik Mohd Ishak have recovered from their hamstring injuries and will return to the national squad line-up,’’ he said. This simultaneously gave the Harimau Malaya squad a shot in the arm to face Vietnam and continue the mission to bring the trophy for the biennial competition to Kuala Lumpur. The absence of Aidil prior to this was covered by young national defender, Muhammad Irfan Zakaria while Syazwan’s position was filled by Nazirul Naim Che Hashim. -- BERNAMA