Cheng Hoe blames sloppy start for Harimau Malaya's defeat to China

KUALA LUMPUR: Harimau Malaya's coach Tan Cheng Hoe expressed disappointment over his team's 2-0 loss to China in a friendly match held in Guangdong on Saturday. The match was played at the Zhaoqing New District Sports Centre, where the world No. 96 side was defeated by the Chinese team. In the 10th minute, Wang Yudong scored the first goal for China, followed by a second goal in the 19th minute scored by Zhang Yuning.

Coach Cheng Hoe attributed the loss to the early goals, saying it put his team in a difficult situation to recover. He added that football becomes challenging when a team falls behind early in the game. Despite the setback, Cheng Hoe praised his players for a stronger second-half performance after introducing Haziq Kutty Abba and Richard Chin, who aimed to boost the team's confidence and score an equalizer.

Harimau Malaya came close to reducing the deficit when Fergus Tierney scored in the 77th minute, but the goal was disallowed after a VAR review ruled out the goal due to a foul by Safwan Mazlan earlier in the attacking move. Tierney also received a red card in the 90th minute after he was shown a second booking for retaliating following a foul by Alex Yang. Malaysia will face Yemen, ranked 144th, in another friendly match at the same venue on Tuesday.