KUALA LUMPUR: Only seven minutes stood between Malaysia and a coveted place in next year’s the AFC Championship in Thailand.
But sadly, the Malaysian wall, which tried valiantly to repulse China’s attack, crumbled with 420 seconds to go.
In the end, heavyweights China managed to get the equaliser and finish on top of Group J on goal difference, and with it, a place in the 2020 AFC U23 Championship.
Malaysia, who finished second in group J, missed out on the list of four “second best” ranked teams (Malaysia were seventh) out of the 11 groups, for the AFC tournament.
It was so close yet so far. Malaysia rose to the occasion and gave China the fright of their lives.
It was a night that China started the match looking so formidable after routing Laos 3-0 and the Philippines 5-0 earlier.
In comparison, Malaysia achieved smaller margin of victories, beating the Philippines 3-0 and Laos 1-0.
But on Tuesday against Malaysia at Shah Alam Stadium, China were fighting for survival most of the time.
Twice Malaysia led in the contest, through an own goal from China’s Zhu Chen Jie and Danial Haqim but twice the visitors fought back.
Backed by a 25,000-odd strong crowd, Malaysia matched China in every department, giving a performance which left coach Ong Kim Swee proud of his boys.
“The players played to what we wanted except that we conceded in the last seven minutes of the match.” said Kim Swee.
“It was a disappointing experience because had we won, we would’ve qualified automatically. The way my boys fought, I’m very proud of them.
“They are a very strong team with good depth and it makes no difference who from the squad of 23 that played.
“China prepared for about three months and we prepared for about 20 days. For our boys to show this character, it’s a very good result for us but still not enough for us to qualify.
“When I don’t play the few players against Laos, we struggled. That is why I said we don’t have much depth and I had to keep Safawi (Rasid), Nik Akif (Syahiran) and Hadi (Fayyadh) so that they will be fresh for China.”
Pakistan’s pullout from the AFC qualifiers meant that all results against the last team in each group would not count in the rankings between all the teams that finished second in their respective groups.
Matching all the other teams in terms of points, Malaysia only lost out by a mere one goal. Had Laos not won against Philippines earlier on Tuesday, Kim Swee’s team would have made it through for sure.
China’s Dutch coach, Guus Hiddink, who had previously taken South Korea to the World Cup semi-finals and managed Real Madrid, praised Malaysia’s performance after the match.
Luck also played an important part in the qualifiers with six out of the final 11 AFC qualifiers ending in draws. Some of the countries kicked off later than Malaysia and knew that a point would have been sufficient for them to go through.
“Maybe it isn’t our luck. We played really well against China and in the three matches that we’ve played, this is the best we produced,” said Safawi.
“We led twice but mistakes cost us twice but I’m very proud of my team mates for what we showed.”
Going out of the competition at this stage also closed the door for Malaysia to make it to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, one of the key KPIs in the ambitious F:30 roadmap from the Football Association of Malaysia.