Malaysian Tigress Notch Second Straight Win In European Tour

KUALA LUMPUR, April 12 (Bernama) -- The national women's hockey squad continued their sizzling performance, securing a second straight victory by whipping first division team, Crefeld Hockey Club 7-0 in their second friendly match of their European Tour on Tuesday (Wednesday in Malaysia). The squad also known as the Malaysian Tigress took a 5-0 lead at halftime via Fatin Naimah in the 8th minute, Zafirah Aziz (12th minute), Norbaini Hashim (14th minute), Hanis Nadiah (21st) and Noraszlin Sumantri in the 26th minute. Malaysia wrapped up the match by adding two more goals in the second half through Fatin Shafiqah in the 35th minute and Noraslinda Said in the 39th minute. National women's squad head coach, Muhammad Dhaarma Raj Abdullah praised his charges for putting up a solid display in the match while urging the players to continue the winning feat when facing second division team, Raffelberg on Thursday. "I acknowledged that our team is much better than this club side as we were dominating the match right from the start. "What is important is to take this match as a practice before facing a real test against Germany's Under 21 (U-21) squad for three days starting on Friday," Muhammad Dhaarma Raj told Bernama via Whatsapp. Malaysia who edged RHTC Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 in the first friendly match on Monday, will take on Raffelberg in the third friendly match on Thursday before wrapping up their Germany Tour with three matches against the Germany U-21 side. The squad, then, will fly to the Netherlands where they will play eight friendly matches before returning home on April 29. The European Tour in both countries is among the Malaysian Hockey Confederation's (MHC) plans before the squad take part in the 2017 Hockey World League Semifinal Tournament from June 21- July 2 in Brussels, Belgium which serves as the qualifying tournament for the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup in London. Malaysia face a tough task in Brussels as they are drawn against world number two team Australia, Belgium, New Zealand and Spain in Group B while the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallists Netherlands will spearhead the Group A challenge alongside China, South Korea, Italy and also Scotland in the tournament. --BERNAMA