REACTIONS TO MALAYSIA’S FIRST WIN

QUOTES FROM PHILIPPINES HEAD COACH JOSE ARISTON CASLIB

“I think Malaysia deserved to win the match today. They really dictated the first 15 minutes of the match and that was the most important thing. We have to give credit to the Malaysian team,”

“I want to mention one important thing right now. I think the pitch condition should be reconsidered. If you look at the injury of our team captain Alexander Borromeo, there is a problem with the pitch. We do not want to see very good players having problems because of the pitch conditions.

“But the match itself I think Malaysia worked hard for their goals. We tried to develop things in the second half but we were not able to achieve it.

“If you lose your central defender (Borromeo) in the first 15 minutes of the match it is a big problem. We were not able to recover after that. He is going to hospital for a medical inspection – it is a problem with his left knee.

“We have to talk things over – already we lessen our target to three points from the group. We will have to see how Thailand and Myanmar play later.”

CHRIS GREATWICH, MIDFIELDER

“We started off slow and conceded two sloppy goals which we could have defended better. For long periods of the game I think we dominated. I think we ran out of steam and the third goal was a real sucker punch and killed off the game. After that they opened us up at will.

MALAYSIAN COACH NORIZAN BAKAR

“It is always very difficult to play the first game. I have to congratulate the boys for giving us a good start. At least it gave us a morale booster to face Myanmar. I must give credit to the boys; they put up a very good performance tonight.

“We were shaky for the first 15 minutes. We just got into the game after 20 minutes but once we started playing well, we managed to score four goals.

“We will see what happens in the game between Thailand and Myanmar. But certainly we cannot relax because this is only the beginning of the campaign; we have another two matches to go.

“After the win we are not going to turn back, we are going to play our heart out in the remaining matches.”