HEART BREAK FOR INDONESIA, MALAYSIA THUMPED

Playing in front of a sell-out crowd at the Stadium Gelora Bung Karno in Jakarta, Indonesia were on the verge of following up their opening win over Bahrain with a remarkable draw against Saudi.

But to their dismay, Saudi’s Saad Al Harthi ensured full points when he struck the winner two minutes into injury time.

The victory has propelled Saudi to the top of the group while Indonesia are second with three points.

In tonight’s match, although Saudi snatched the lead through Yasser Al Qahtani in the 12th minute, the Indonesians were quick to reply when Elie Aiboy picked up a loose ball four minutes later to slam the ball home.

It was a different story in Kuala Lumpur where it was another roasting for the hosts who have not recovered from their opening 5-1 loss to China. This time, it was Uzbekistan who plundered five goals from the dispirited Malaysians.

Uzbekistan took a three goal lead at the break with goals coming off Maksim Shatskikh in the 10th minute, Timur Kapadze in the 30th minute and Ulugbaek Bakaev’s penalty conversion in the 45th minute.

They completed the rout over a hapless Malaysian side in the second half with a goal from Aziz Ibragimov in the 85th minute before Shatskikh nailed his second of the night in the 88th minute.

And this time round, there was no reply from the Malaysians as they suffered the humiliation of being the first team to concede ten goals in two matches.

PIC: INDONESIAN CAPTAIN PONARYO ASTAMAN