Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The Philippines and Malaysia will have to wait a bit longer to end their string of stalemates on the international stage.
The Philippine Azkals and Malaysia battled to a goalless draw in a friendly on Wednesday evening at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.
The Filipinos opened up the game in fiery fashion, playing the roles of aggressors from the opening whistle as shown by early forays into the Malaysian penalty area.
Malaysia found their footing as the half wore on but failed to threaten the Philippine goal.
Neither team could find the opening goal in the first half.
Substitute Pika Minigeshi stung the Malaysian keepers gloves at the 71st minute mark for the Azkals, as both sides continued to probe to find the opener.
The visitors started threatening the Filipino defense with 10 minutes left to play, after defender Amani Aguinaldo was forced off the field for a short period of time due to a knock.
Malaysia came even closer when Veenod Subramaniam flashed an attempt wide right of Neil Eteridge’s goalpost at the 87th minute.
Four minutes of added time was not enough, as the two teams settled for the draw.
After the game Azkals coach Thomas Dooley said that even if he was pleased with how his players played, he would have preferred to come away with the victory.
“I’m obviously not happy that we tied, I would have loved to win the game,” Dooley admitted. “I am actually pretty happy with the performance of the players, we run a lot, we played nicely, we just couldn’t finish.”
The Philippines hope for a better result when they go up against Nepal on Tuesday evening for their opening game of the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers at the same venue.
