Hundreds of spectators
As the opening of the Asian Cup is approaching, the teams are actively preparing for the warm-up matches. In the early morning of January 9th, Beijing time, the Syrian men's football team and the Malaysian men's football team ended a friendly match, and finally drew 2-2, Syria has not won Malaysia in 2 consecutive games, compared with the previous 2 consecutive wins against this Southeast Asian team, the advantage is gradually shrinking, and the side also reflects that Malaysia's strength is indeed advancing by leaps and bounds, and it will also become a major rival of the national football team in the future.
In recent years, Syria has continuously advanced to the round of 12, coupled with being a frequent participant in the Asian Cup, and even won more and lost against the national football team, so it is not an exaggeration to be listed as a second-rate team in Asia.
In the latest world rankings, Syria ranks 91st and Malaysia ranks 130th, with a difference of 39 places between the two teams, and there is still a certain gap in strength.
In this game, Malaysia took the lead in breaking through Syria's goal and took a 1-0 lead, in the 70th and 74th minutes of the second half, Syria scored two goals in a row to complete the overtake, and in the 78th minute, Malaysia quickly pulled to a 2-2 draw, and finally maintained this score until the end of the game.
Through this friendly match, it can be seen that Malaysia's strength has increased a lot, and it has basically lost against Syria in the past, and now it is unbeaten in 2 consecutive games.
According to statistics, Malaysia have a record of 8 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss in the last 11 games, the only loss was against Tajikistan, and other wins include 1-0 Turkmenistan, 4-3 Kyrgyzstan, 4-2 India, 2-0 Hong Kong, 1-0 Chinese Taipei, etc.
In addition, Malaysia also played with the national team last year, when Malaysia scored first, and the national football team did not win until the second half of the difficult equalizer, and finally drew 1-1, which was the first time in nearly 43 years that the national football team did not win against this Southeast Asian team.
5 years ago, Malaysia's world ranking was only 178th, recognized as the belly of the fish team, now improved to 130th, the upward momentum is very strong, now within a year against the Chinese men's football team, Hong Kong, China team, Chinese Taipei team to achieve 2 wins and 1 draw unbeaten record, and our national football team is in a regressive trend, the year-end ranking is getting lower and lower year by year, the gap between the two teams is narrowing step by step, the national football team has no strength to win.
In the first two rounds of the Asian zone of the World Preliminary Championships last year, Malaysia became the only unseeded team with two consecutive wins at the beginning, leading the group standings with 6 points, and is expected to qualify first in the group, and the probability of entering the round of 18 is even higher than that of the national football team.
In addition, Malaysia's participation in this Asian Cup also has hopes of advancing to the knockout round. It can be said that Malaysia has become a new force in Asian football, and the national football team needs to pay attention to this fierce rival.