KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian football great Datuk Dollah Salleh is pleased with the overall improvements shown by Malaysia during their AFC Asian Cup match against Bahrain in Qatar yesterday.
Dollah admitted that the match had his entire family on the edge of their seats.
Ali Madan scored from the edge of the box mere seconds before the referee blew the final whistle, allowing Bahrain to run out 1-0 winners.
"It was definitely a huge improvement over the Jordan game," said Dollah when contacted today.
"We had quite a number of chances to score throughout the match.
"Despite controlling much of the game in the second half, Bahrain struggled to score against us.
"Arif Aiman Hanapi and Faisal Salim were still not performing at their usual level but overall I think it was still a good performance from the team.
"They definitely gave it their best effort, you could see that.
"It was just not meant to be, my whole family screamed (in disappointment) after Bahrain scored in extra time to the extent that my youngest grandchild cried."
Harimau Malaya lost 4-0 to Jordan in their opening Group E match last week.
National coach Kim Pan Gon was criticised for giving Jordan too much space and employed a more compact 5-4-1 formation for the match against Bahrain.
Malaysia will play their final group match against South Korea on Thursday.
