Malaysia's Pau Marti shares his thoughts on 1-1 draw against Manolo Márquez's India

The match between the Blue Tigers and the Harimau Malaya ended in a draw with a scoreline of 1-1

India and Malaysia shared their spoils in a 1-1 draw in a closely contested friendly match played at the GMC Balayogi Stadium, Hyderabad.

All square in Hyderabad! 🇮🇳🤝🇲🇾 A closely fought contest ends in a stalemate ⚔ #IndianFootball #INDMAS #BlueTigers pic.twitter.com/8CaNKd7Zm5

— Khel Now (@KhelNow) November 18, 2024

The match was a back-and-forth affair, with both teams creating numerous scoring opportunities. Malaysia took the lead early on, but India fought back to equalize before halftime.

Except for Laos, Malaysia have been struggling against the away teams and in the last five away games Malaysia have only won one game. The draw might have been a favourable result but the team will be disappointed not to have secured a victory, especially after taking the lead.

The Malaysian National Team head coach Pau Marti spoke to the media yesterday after the stalemate against India.

The Harimau Malaya despite getting the lead early seemed to struggle against the Blues Tigers in the first half. The tactician agreed that they could have converted a few chances in the second half but also said that he was happy with the result.

“Yeah, I think the game was quite tight. I think in the first half we struggled a bit to find our way of playing. In the second half, maybe we improved a bit. Overall, the result I think is quite fair, but maybe we missed a few chances at the end of the game. I think we are a bit disappointed on that but happy for the game.” He stated.

With the qualifiers approaching soon, the International friendlies played against teams like this play a huge role. Regardless of a draw, the manager was hopeful about the team being ready for the upcoming challenges

“Yeah, I think away from home against a team like India, for us, I think it’s a good result. Of course, we want more. We want to win every game, but I think it’s a good result. I think when these qualifiers are soon approaching I think we need to be able to compete against this kind of level. Maybe another day with a bit more luck, with a bit more precision, I think we will get the win. Luckily for us, we also have the AFF in Malaysia, so we play now in two weeks another tournament. So, I think this also will help us to be even more ready for March.” He stated.

Paulo Josue in the 19th minute scored a goal after a very silly goalkeeping error by Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. Paulo Josue Strumer Dos Reis is originally a Brazilian attacking midfielder who’s now a citizen of Malaysia. Since the goal was scored by a naturalised player, when asked about his opinion on naturalised players he believed that having naturalised players is not an uncommon practice

“Yeah, I think they asked me as well before. I think nowadays if you see the world of football, every national team has a really mixed origin from the players. I think now it’s becoming common, not something different.”

“In our case in Malaysia, the regulation here states that after five years living there, you can become Malaysian by right. Then these players, who have been here playing for long, then they deserve the right to play if we think they are good. I think in the end, every day in the world, there are a lot of people moving around, changing countries. This will soon become a reality almost in all national teams.” he concluded.

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