PETALING JAYA: Naturalised national footballer Lee Tuck has called upon his Harimau Malaya teammates to be more aggressive in their 2022 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Cup Group B crunch tie against Singapore at National Stadium, Bukit Jalil this Tuesday.
Tuck believes his teammates have what it takes to penetrate Singapore’s back line and ultimately score goals, even if their opponents opt to play ‘park the bus’ tactics.
“I would think that the game plan would be something similar (to park the bus) because they just need to get one point. So we’ve got to find a way to break them down.
“It’s not going to be easy, but like I said before, I think we’ve got the quality, and we’ve shown that in the tournament by scoring goals. We’ve got to win the game,” he told reporters when met at the training session here today.
Even though Singapore has a slight advantage of advancing to the semifinals after securing a goalless draw against Vietnam in Jalan Besar Stadium last night, the new Kedah Darul Aman FC attacking midfielder is still confident that there is no pressure on the national team when they face their neighbours.
In fact, Tuck was optimistic that they can get the job done and make the cut for the last four in the tournament.
“Everyone seems relaxed now, we’re confident in what we can do and we’re looking forward to the game because we believe we’ve got what it takes to reach the semifinals,” he said.
The 0-0 result saw Singapore amassing a total of seven points, taking second place and relegating Malaysia to third with six points, while Vietnam remains Group B leaders due to their goal difference, with seven points.
Myanmar, who will travel to My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi to play Vietnam on Jan 3, remain in fourth spot with one point while Laos lingers at the bottom, also with one point.
After having featured only once in the AFF starting line up against Vietnam last Tuesday, the 34-year-old said he would have love to be in the first eleven once again against ‘The Lions’.
“Of course you want to play as many minutes as possible, so I prefer to start. But sometimes it’s nice to come off the bench and make a difference,” he said.
Commenting on his transfer from Sri Pahang FC to Kedah, the Huddersfield-born player said he did not have a tinge of regret to leave the club and wished them all the best next season. – Bernama