Malaysia, Lebanon latest teams to arrive for Asian Cup

Malaysia and Lebanon squads arrived in Doha for the AFC Asian Cup, which will be held in Qatar from January 12 to February 10. Malaysian players wasted little time to hit the ground running as they trained at the Qatar University, under the watchful eyes of coach Kim Pan Gon.Malaysia are in Group E at the continental showpiece and will meet Jordan on January 15, Bahrain on January 20 and South Korea on January 25. They are scheduled to play a friendly against Syria on January 8.Malaysia are making their fourth appearance in the tournament. The last time they qualified for an Asian Cup tournament that they didn’t host was back in 1980. They did co-host the Asian Cup in 2007 but were the worst team at the tournament, losing all three matches.So it’s been a long wait for any kind of Asian Cup success for Malaysia. But in head coach Kim Pan-gon, they have somebody who knows what it is like to appear at major tournaments.Since taking over the Malaysia national team at the start of 2022, the 54-year-old head coach has improved the fortunes of the team as they have climbed the FIFA rankings from 154 in the world when Kim took over up to 130 now.Pan Gon has guided Malaysia to nine wins in 13 games this year, and the team topped their World Cup Group D Qualifier with wins against Kyrgyzstan (4-3) and Taiwan (1-0) last month."It’s about Malaysia being able to compete with the best teams on the continent,” said Pan Gon in an interview with Fifa.com. "The fact that we’re able to compete against some of the world’s best players is pretty good for me. It’s hard for us to beat a top-seeded side, but just going up against them is the best motivation. Not just South Korea, it’s Bahrain (world No 86) and Jordan (87), who are much stronger than us. However, we are aiming to win at least one of the matches to make Malaysian fans happy. The goal is to reach the round of 16,” the South Korean added.Meanwhile, Lebanon too touched down Qatar for the Asian Cup Qatar.The team will take part in a short training camp and will play a friendly match against Saudi Arabia on Thursday. Lebanon are making their third appearance at the continental event.Lebanon will open the campaign against hosts Qatar on January 12 at Lusail Stadium. They then face China on January 17 at Al Thumama Stadium before winding up their group stage fixtures against Tajikistan on January 22 at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium.Earlier this month Lebanon reappointed former Montenegro coach Miodrag Radulovic to replace Croatian Nikola Jurcevic just a month before the Asian Cup. Jurcevic left by mutual consent after only two months in the role. Radulovic, 56, managed Lebanon from 2015-2019.Under Jurcevic, Lebanon lost twice in friendlies against Montenegro and the United Arab Emirates and had draws against Palestine and Bangladesh in 2026 World Cup qualifiers.