BY ZULHILMI ZAINAL Follow on Twitter
Malaysia U-16 will kick off the 2018 AFC U-16 Championship next Wednesday, a tournament that they host.
The 23-man squad, who come from the National Football Development Programme (NFDP), will also be led by the project' director, former Malaysia international and Bayern Munich youth coach Lim Teong Kim as their head coach.
The pressure has already built up for the Young Tigers, not only because they are the hosts, but also due to the fact that they want to reach the semi-finals, in order to qualify for the 2019 World Cup U-17.
Understandably, Lim's boys have played in a number of preparatory matches and tournaments this year, in the run up to the AFC finals.
They began the year by taking part in the invitational JENESYS Japan-ASEAN U-16 Youth Football Tournament in March. In the group stage, they lost 2-1 to Japan U-17, before thumping Timor-Leste U-16 8-0. They then edged Cambodia U-17 3-0 in the second place play-off, before defeating Laos U-17 4-0 in the fifth-place decider match.
In July they play in a series of friendly matches at home, beginning with a 4-3 win against Indonesia U-16 on July 6. They then lost 2-0 and 4-0 to South Korea on July 11 and 17 respectively, before bouncing back with a 4-0 victory over Cambodia. Indonesia and South Korea have also qualified for the AFC finals.
They then played at home twice against another AFC finals team India. On the 23rd they won 3-0, but in the repeat match three days later, they lost 2-1.
They then travelled to Indonesia for the 2018 AFF U-16 Youth Championship, although this time they did not feature main players of the programme, and they were led by Raja Azlan Shah Raja So'ib as head coach instead.
They opened the group stage with a 2-1 defeat to Thailand, but reached the semis with 6-1, 4-0 and 1-0 wins against Brunei, Singapore and Laos, respectively.
In the semi-final match they fell to a 1-0 defeat to the hosts, but captured the third place with a 1-0 win over Myanmar.
Returning home, they played three times against New Caledonia U-17, winning 5-0 (August 18), 4-2 (August 21) and 1-0 (August 24).
Malaysia will open the tournament and their campaign against Tajikistan on September 20 at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium, with kick off time at 4.30 pm.
The full tournament fixtures can be viewed and downloaded from here.
Read more on Malaysia U-16 and the tournament.
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