was only Timor-Leste, Malaysia easily destroyed the Timorese 12–2 on aggregate. There, they joined the second round where the team was surprisingly grouped in a group containing three other Southeast Asian rivals Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam; alongside the United Arab Emirates. Malaysia opened their game with a 3–2 comeback victory over rival Indonesia in a match with full scandal and strong Anti-Malaysian sentiment among Indonesians. It was followed by an unlucky 1–2 home loss to the UAE, and to add the irony, Malaysia took the lead from early minute only to see itself being beaten at home. The next encounter against rival Vietnam in Hanoi, which was the rematch of 2018 AFF Championship, ended with another Malaysian defeat as the Malay Tigers fell 0–1. However, Malaysia has not been eliminated as the team can still get an opportunity to qualify further. Then, Malaysia managed one of the most famous victories in their FIFA World Cup campaign, beating neighbor and regional powerhouse Thailand 2–1 at home to keep its dream alive. Malaysia boosted its confidence with its victory over Thailand to overcome a demoralized Indonesia, also at home, 2–0, to occupy second spot behind Vietnam and above Thailand. Following Malaysia's failure to qualify for the semi-finals of the AFF Cup 2020 in Singapore, Tan Cheng Hoe resigned as the head coach of Football Association of Malaysia. On 21 January 2022, South Korean national Kim Pan-gon was hired as the new national team head coach. On 26 March 2022, Malaysia lost against Singapore 2–1 as part of the 2022 FAS Tri-Nations Series. 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification Under Kim Pan-gon, Malaysia started their campaign with a 3–1 win over Turkmenistan. It was followed by an 1–2 loss to Bahrain; in which Bahrain took back the lead with a late penalty after Malaysia had equalised. However, Malaysia won 4–1 against Bangladesh in their final match, thus placing second in the group overall. This resulted in Malaysia succeeding to qualify for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, 15 years after their last appearance as hosts of the 2007 edition, which granted automated qualification. Team image Media coverage All matches of Malaysia are shown live on Astro Arena (friendlies, World Cup (2nd round only), and Media Prima (Asian Cup qualifiers), RTM (AFF Championship matches (except 2014 season), World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers), and (AFF Championship matches for 2014 season only). All matches are broadcast with