Malaysia U23 turns attention to Son Heung-min-led South Korea after beating Kyrgyzstan

After Malaysia U-23 put Kyrgyzstan to the sword, head coach Ong Kim Swee now turns his attention towards the Son Heung-min-led South Korea.

Speaking to the press following their 3-1 win over Kyrgyzstan U-23 in their Group E Asian Games men's football event match, Malaysia U-23 head coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee expressed his belief in his charges, ahead of their tough coming encounter.

On Saturday, they will take on defending champions South Korea U-23, who are also strengthened by Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-min in the competition. In the AFC U-23 Championship finals earlier this year, the two sides met in the quarter-finals, with the East Asian side defeating the Southeast Asian team 2-1, although the finals featured no overaged players.

Commenting on the Wednesday win, Kim Swee said that he is glad for the win, if not for the way his charges played.

"It's a good result, although my boys should have done better, performance-wise. I hope they can improve on this in the coming matches.

"We knew that the opposition would try to get back in the match after going down to our opening goal, and they did trouble us in the opening stages of the second half. But thankfully we found the lead again, which gave us the confidence to bag the third," he remarked.

Asked about their coming match against the defending champions, the Southeast Asian Games gold-medal winner revealed his desire to produce the unexpected.

"Everyone knows how much better the Koreans are. But what's important is that my boys need to play to our strengths, while being cautious of the movement of every single opposing player.

"They have quality not in just their first eleven, but throughout their squad. We have to be disciplined throughout the game, and I believe we can surprise them," Kim Swee noted.

In the match that was held at the Si Jalak Harupat Stadium, Bandung, the Young Tigers opened the scoring through Safawi Rasid's 37th minute penalty, but Ernist Batyrkanov levelled the score for Kyrgyzstan with his header in the 55th minute. Akhyar Rashid gave Malaysia the lead again six minutes later with his first touch strike, before Syafiq Ahmad sealed the three points in the 78th minute with his header.

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