Malaysia’s women’s football team missed the semifinals of the 2026 AFF Women’s Cup after a 1-3 defeat to Singapore in their final Group A match.
KUALA LUMPUR: The national women’s football squad missed out on the opportunity to advance to the semifinals of the 2026 AFF Women’s Cup after losing 1-3 to Singapore in their final Group A match at the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium, Cheras here today.
The result sees the Malayan Tigress sitting at the bottom of the Group A standings with one point, below Singapore who topped the chart with four points, while Laos finished in second place with two points.
Only the top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals on July 19, while the final and the third-place play-off are scheduled to take place on July 22.
Today’s match saw both teams playing in rainy conditions, but the visiting team appeared to dominate the game before opening the scoring through Yuvika Suresh in the 13th minute.
Stung by the goal, the Malayan Tigress squad looked hungrier to make attempts, including a shot by Tegen Su Yin Butler in the 17th minute, but the strike merely sailed past the goalmouth.
The squad managed by Joel Cornelli continued to make attempts to break the deadlock through Nur Ainsyah Murad in the 27th minute, but the shot was denied by the visitors’ goalkeeper, Nur Izairida Shakira Muamad Zaini.
The Singapore team under the guidance of Mihoko Sugawara added further misery to the Malayan Tigress when they doubled their lead in the 45th minute through Danelle Tan.
Resuming in the second half, the Malayan Tigress emerged more aggressive in their hunt for a goal, which bore fruit when Henrietta Justine unleashed a powerful shot into the visitors’ net after receiving a pass from Nur Ainsyah in the 59th minute.
However, Singapore managed to widen the gap when the referee awarded a penalty kick to Danelle after she was brought down in the 73rd minute by the goalkeeper inside the penalty box and the score remained 1-3 until the final whistle.
Meanwhile, Cornelli said the Malayan Tigress showed improvement in the second half, but simple mistakes and a failure to convert several chances caused his team to miss out on a positive result.
“We tried to make some changes and when we scored one goal, I think that we are in the good moment in the game. But we need to be better. We need to improve our performance… this is the process. It’s a long process,” he told reporters at a press conference after the match here today.
