With half the squad from the teams that did not feature in the Malaysia Cup final last Saturday meant that the players were short on fitness and that was why Tan Cheng Hoe opted to have a behind closed door friendly against Maldives at the Tunku Abdul Rahman Stadium in Paroi where Malaysia won 2-1.
The first two days of training saw only 12 players at Cheng Hoe's disposal and that meant all but one started on Tuesday with Shahrel Fikri left out. Shahrul Saad, Dominic Tan, Nazirul Naim and Matthew Davies formed the defence with a midfield trio of Danial Amier, Azzizan Nordin and Nor Azam Azih. Syahmi Safari, Norshahrul Idlan Talaha and Mohamadou Sumareh were tried as an attacking trio.
Malaysia opened the scoring in the 8th minute through Syahmi before Maldvies equalised through Ahmed Rizuvan on the hour mark. Substitute Baddrol Bakhtiar converted a spot kick in the 72nd minute to seal a win for the hosts. The opportunity to play Maldives was there because they had chosen to train in Malaysia to prepare for their match against Philippines on November 14.
The Johor Darul Ta'zim and Kedah players joined up with the team yesterday prior to the match and some of them even saw action. While complete details were not released by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), it was understood that Syamer Kutty Abba, Adam Nor Azlin and Syazwan Andik also featured as substitutes.
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