KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia edged Austria 5-4 to finish seventh in the Nations Cup in Gniezno, Poland, today.
Yesterday, Malaysia's world ranking dropped one spot to 13th after a 4-3 loss to South Korea in the semi-final.
Sarjit Singh's men, took a comfortable 5-1 lead, but later conceded three goals in 16 minutes and were lucky to escape with the narrow win.
Veteran Faizal Saari scored a hat-trick in the 18th, 32nd and 33rd minute for a total of seven goals in five matches.
Azrai Aizad Abu Kamal (second) and Fitri Saari (23rd) delivered the other goals for Malaysia.
World No. 19 Austria replied through Fulop Losonci (21st) and Maximilian Scholz (34th, 51st) and Arthur Kucera (49th).
It was Malaysia's third win over the European team in four meetings, with one draw (2-2) in a World Cup
qualifier in Invercargill, New Zealand in 2009.
Malaysia won two, drew one and lost two matches in the Nations Cup, scoring 17 goals and conceding 17.
Sarjit said: "Our defence was under pressure in the last two quarters. We made three mistakes and were punished."
But the coach felt that, overall, the national team did well in Gniezno.