Japan Scuppers Malaysia' S U-16's World Cup Dream

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 (Bernama) – Malaysia's dreams of qualifying for the 2019 Under 17 Years (U-17) World Cup were destroyed when they were ousted from the 2018 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under 16 Years (U-16) championship after losing 0-2 to Japan in the last group A match, on Thursday. The squad under head coach, Lim Teong Kim, failed to advance to the quarter-finals after finishing at the bottom in their group competition by collecting three points from a victory over Tajikistan and two defeats. Malaysia started out well when successfully testing the opponent's defence via some interesting moves in the action at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil witnessed by more than 8,000 supporters Malaysia managed to make two attempts on the opposition goal through Muhammad Alif Mutalib in the 19th minute followed by Harith Naem Jaineh (26th minute), but failed to beat Japanese goalkeeper Taiki Yamada. On the other hand, Japan, which was more cautious from the start of the game, managed to take advantage of Malaysia’s defensive mistakes to score the first goal in the 37th minute through Shoji Toyama for Japan to lead with 1-0 until break. In the second round, Malaysia doubled its attacks on the opponents’ goalmouth in an effort to equalise and keep their chance to advance to the knock-out round alive but every move found a dead end. Approaching full-time, Japan doubled the score via Hikaru Naruoka to confirm the young Samurai Blue's win. Meanwhile, accompanying Japan was Tajikistan after a 2-1 win over Thailand in another group A final at Arena Stadium Universiti Malaya. Ozodbek Panzhiev scored for Tajikistan in the 39th minute after his attempt was not properly cleared by Thai goalkeeper Anuchid Taweesri and the ball rolled in. The Young Elephant squad managed to equalise in the 80th minute through a free-kick by Suphanat Mueanta, but Tajikistan confirmed the ticket to the quarter-finals with a Amadoni Kamolov's header, three minutes later. It was Tajikistan's first win in the campaign this time after losing 2-6 to Malaysia as well as a goalless draw against Japan in two previous games. -- BERNAMA