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Malaysia take on Lebanon

An AFC official shows up the names Malaysia and Lebanon after the draw of the second round of the Asian 2012 London Olympic qualifier at the AFC headquarters yesterday. — Picture by Osman Adnan
An AFC official shows up the names Malaysia and Lebanon after the draw of the second round of the Asian 2012 London Olympic qualifier at the AFC headquarters yesterday. — Picture by Osman Adnan
RELIEF at avoiding the big guns soon gave way to the realisation that little is known of the Lebanese Olympic team after the draw for the second round of the Asian 2012 London Olympic qualifiers yesterday. While the match-up against Lebanon presents Malaysia with the best chance of advancing to the group stage, national Under-23 coach Ong Kim Swee preached caution ahead of the home and away ties on June 19 and 23.

With Malaysia travelling to Beirut for the first leg, Kim Swee was pleased to have the second leg at home but said much work remains to be done.

"Have we ever played Lebanon before?" asked Kim Swee, to which the answer is no.
"We know little about them although I seem to recall Selangor did play against a Lebanese club in the AFC Cup a few years ago.

"What we have to do now is come up with a programme to prepare against our opponents. We need to do our homework and get some information on Lebanon," said Kim Swee after the draw at AFC House in Bukit Jalil yesterday.

Malaysia last qualified for the Olympics in 1980, but never got to play due to a boycott of the Moscow event and have never come close to qualifying since.

Kim Swee was right about Selangor -- Al-Nejmeh were the opposition in the 2006 AFC Cup quarter-finals won by the Lebanese club 1-0 on aggregate in the only meeting between teams from the two countries at senior, Olympic or club level.

There were a few anxious faces among the Malaysian officials when Malaysia were the last team left in the unseeded pot with the choice of playing China or Lebanon left.

That expression gave way to relief when China were drawn against Oman, leaving Malaysia and Lebanon as the last remaining pairing.



Malaysia reached the second round with a 2-0 aggregate win over Pakistan while Lebanon had a bye.

At senior level, Malaysia are ranked 23rd in Asia to Lebanon's 32nd according to Fifa's world rankings with the Lebanese not having played an international since March 2010.

Meanwhile, Malaysia were drawn with defending champions North Korea in both the AFC Under-19 and Under-16 qualifying competitions.

Ismail Ibrahim's Under-19 team also have Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos for company in Group F while the Under-16 side were pitched against China, Timor Leste, Singapore and Macau in Group E.



Read more: NST

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