PETALING JAYA – Despite the lack of competitive matches, Turkmenistan is approaching the 2023 Asian Cup Qualifier campaign starting tomorrow with only one aim – to qualify for the final round.

Head coach, Yazguly Hojageldiyev said it would be the highest recognition for ‘The Greens’ to participate in the Asian Cup after successfully doing so in the 2019 edition in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Despite admitting to facing stiff challenges against Bahrain, who are the favourites, and Malaysia who have the advantage as a host, Hojageldiyev remains optimistic about his team overcoming the hurdles of Group E in their qualifying campaign.

“It’s an honour to be here and we would like to qualify from this group and of course, the first match will be very hard, despite the lack of competitive matches, we want to qualify from here,” he said at a pre-match press conference here, today.

Turkmenistan lost 0-1 to Thailand last month in their first competitive match since June 2021 while Malaysia recorded three wins in four games this year, with the most recent being the 2-0 win against Hong Kong at the National Stadium.

Turkmenistan will begin their challenge against Malaysia at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil tomorrow night before meeting Bangladesh (June 11) and Bahrain on June 14 in a quest to emerge champion or top five runners-up to secure a slot into the Asian Cup.

Commenting on the match against Malaysia, and the fact that Turkmenistan was ranked 20 rungs higher at 134th than Malaysia, Hojageldiyev said he was not looking at Malaysia’s strength from that perspective.

He went on to describe Malaysia as having a better attacking style. 

He said his team will have to find ways to overcome difficult moments due to the game schedule which limited their chances of holding training sessions.

“It will be hard for everybody here, not only because of the rest time but also fewer practice sessions. We have to solve this issue, (the) match will be hard because our first match is at 9 pm and the other match will be in the evening, so let’s see what will happen,” he said.

In the meantime, goalkeeper Mammet Orazmuhammedov said the team’s biggest motivation is to qualify for the 2023 Asian Cup and was confident that his teammates would be able to grab at least one point against the host team. – Bernama