The Malayan Tiger celebrated a goal fest as they thrashed Papua New Guinea 10-0 in an international Tier 1 match at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium on 2oth June.
Malaysia’s perfect victory over the 149th-ranked team in the world was aided by the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Malaysian League (M-League), Arif Aiman Hanapi, as well as Paulo Josue’s hat-trick in the second half.
This is one of the biggest wins for the Malayan Tiger in international rankings, surpassing their previous record of thrashing the Philippines 15-1 in 1962.
However, the first half only saw Malaysia leading 1-0 through Safawi Rasid’s penalty kick in the 45th minute, awarded for Solomon Rani’s rough challenge on Akhyar Rashid.
The Malayan Tiger started their rampage against Papua New Guinea seven minutes into the second half, with Josue’s goal resulting from Daniel Ting’s cross from the left.
Starting from Dominic Tan’s long pass from the back, Arif Aiman (57th minute) cleverly evaded the offside trap to calmly score the third goal, followed by Faisal Abdul Halim’s goal in the 59th minute.
The duo combined again for the fifth goal, as Arif Aiman (60th minute) easily tapped in the ball from Faisal’s cross from the left.
The “super sub” forward, Josue, then scored his second and completed his hat-trick in the 64th and 70th minutes after receiving a pass from Arif Aiman.
The perfect night for the Malayan Tiger continued as Daniel scored in the 76th minute, making it 8-0, before Arif Aiman also completed his hat-trick in the 87th minute.
Papua New Guinea had no response to the ferocity of the Malayan Tiger, who sealed the 10-0 victory through Arif Aiman’s goal in the 89th minute.
Additional time given by Indonesian referee Yudi Nurcahaya only completed the match, witnessing almost 10,000 roaring Malayan Tiger celebrating as the final whistle blew.
