KUALA LUMPUR: Harimau Malaya head coach Pau Marti Vicente described the Tier 1 international friendly matches against Laos and India as the best tonic for his men to face two different tournaments.
He said the two teams would certainly provide useful experience for the national squad in preparation for two tournaments namely the ASEAN Cup in December and the third round of the 2027 Asian Cup Qualification next year.
“Its a good opportunity for us to play in two games with two different approaches. We will use the match against Laos as a preparation for the ASEAN Cup and India to prepare for the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers.
“I expect two difficult away games (friendly against Laos and India) but it is good for us and we learned a lot from the previous two games (friendly) in New Zealand,“ he told reporters at the squad’s official training session at Wisma FAM, Kelana Jaya yesterday.
Malaysia are ranked 133rd in the world while India and Laos are ranked 125th and 187th respectively.
Pau Marti said at the same time, the match will see a new approach adopted by him in an effort to achieve the best results and improve Harimau Malaya’s away record.
The last time Malaysia met Laos was in the 2022 AFF Cup with a 5-0 victory in the group stage at Bukit Jalil National Stadium (SNBJ), here and beat India 4-2 in the Pestabola Merdeka 2023 competition.
