Defensive mistakes proved costly for Bangladesh as Malaysia ran out 3-0 winners in their opening ASEAN Cup match on Thursday in Jakarta.
Bangladesh stayed with Malaysia for the opening 15 minutes at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, but once Arif Aiman broke the deadlock in the 18th minute, the game seemed to slip away.
Aiman opened the scoring after finding space in a Bangladesh defence that struggled to deal with the Malaysian attack. Shakil Ahad tried to close him down but could not prevent the forward from finishing.
Bangladesh had a chance to respond in the 33rd minute. Sad Uddin’s pass found Rakib Hossain inside the Malaysia penalty area, but the forward was closely marked and could not get his shot away.
Five minutes later, another mistake at the back left Bangladesh fighting a two-goal deficit. Shakil lost possession while trying to play the ball forward, allowing Aiman to go through one-on-one with goalkeeper Mehedi Hasan and score his second goal.
Bangladesh made two changes at halftime, with Shahriar Emon and Shuki Itofusa replacing Fahmidul and Farhan.
The changes brought some more pace to Bangladesh’s attack, but they could not turn that into clear chances. Instead, Malaysia scored again in the 52nd minute, with Bergson taking advantage of another lapse in the Bangladesh defence.
Thomas Dooley made two further changes in the 59th minute, sending on Sheikh Morsalin and Zidan Yousuf for Tariq Kazi and Shamit Som. It was Zidan’s first senior appearance for Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s best chance to reduce the deficit came in the 75th minute when Hamza Choudhury had two attempts, but neither found the target. Shahriar Emon also got a shot away seven minutes later, only for the Malaysia goalkeeper to make a routine save.
The defeat was Dooley’s second match in charge of Bangladesh.
The result also ended Malaysia’s two-match run without a goal. Malaysia are ranked 136th in the FIFA rankings, 45 places above Bangladesh at 181st.
The match was also the Bangladesh debut of 19-year-old Farhan, who is contracted to Premier League club Fulham and is currently on loan at National League side Boreham Wood.
Bangladesh will face Singapore on September 28 before taking on Indonesia in their other Group One match.