Cheers all round: The Malaysian players celebrating after Darren Lok scored against Taiwan. — FAM
PETALING JAYA: Substitute Darren Lok came to the rescue to help Malaysia end a 12-year wait to savour a football match victory over Taiwan.
Darren scrambled the ball into the net in the 72nd minute to help Harimau Malaya overcome the home team 1-0 in their second Group D match of the World Cup 2026-Asian Cup 2027 Qualifiers at the Taiwan Municipal Stadium in Taipei last night.
Kim Pan-gon’s men have thus claimed back-to-back wins after fighting back from two goals down to beat Kyrgyzstan 4-3 last Thursday to go top of Group D with six points.
Their position, however, may change if Oman beat Kyrgyzstan at the Omurzakov Stadium later at press time.
The Harimau Malaya trooped out yesterday with a mission to erase a losing streak to world No. 152 Taiwan since 2011 but the home side certainly proved a tough net to crack.
Malaysia last beat Taiwan 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier in June 2011. They then lost 2-3 in the return leg in Taipei that year and also went down 0-2 in a friendly tie in 2018.
Malaysia were frustrated on several occasions and the first serious attempt only came in the 40th minute through a volley from Stuart Wilkin that was saved by Taiwanese goalkeeper Pan Wen-chieh.
Malaysia, ranked 137th in the world, once again faced disappointment when Faisal Halim’s attempt in the 43rd minute hit the post.
But Pan-gon’s move to bring on Darren Lok and Endrick Dos Santos in the 62nd minute turned out to be fruitful.
The Sabah striker managed to open the scoring for Malaysia 10 minutes later when he reacted fast to capitalise on a Dos Santos shot that was cleared by Wen Chieh.
Altogether, Pan-gon made four changes to the starting line-up last night compared to the opening match against Kyrgyzstan last week.
Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) midfielder Afiq Fazail, along with Brazil-born Paulo Josue, were listed in the starting 11 while Selangor midfielder Brendan Gan was placed on the bench.
Pan-gon also made changes to the attack by using Akhyar Rashid in the starting line-up while Junior Eldstal replaced Shahrul Saad.
Dion Cools was handed the skipper’s armband for the match against Taiwan, replacing Matthew Davies who was given the role against Kyrgyzstan .
Malaysia will resume their qualifying campaign against world No. 72 Oman away next year on March 21.
