Malaysia have not won the AFF Suzuki Cup since 2010 and failed to make the semi-finals two years ago, but Syazwan Andik insists they start the 2018 edition as one of the favourites to lift the title.

The Harimau Malaya kick off their Group A campaign in Phnom Penh on Thursday in what is the first AFF Suzuki Cup game Cambodia has ever hosted and a capacity crowd is expected at the Olympic Stadium.

Left-sided defender Syazwan made his international debut earlier in the year and scored his first goal for his country in the 3-1 victory over the Cambodians at the same venue in Phnom Penh in September.

“Cambodia are a strong team; they have a highly skilled squad and an acclaimed head coach,” said the 22-year-old of Keisuke Honda, the joint head coach of the Angkor Warriors who will not be present at Thursday’s game.

“But we won the friendly match that we played against them recently and I believe that we go into the tournament as one of the favourites to become champions.”

When the sides met in the Cambodian capital two months ago, Malaysia fell behind in the first half, before levelling through Shahrul Saad. Syazwan then put them 2-1 up before Shahrul added another in stoppage time.

Indeed, Malaysia have the upper hand over Cambodia, having also defeated them in the group stage of the 2016 AFF Suzuki Cup, when they secured a 3-2 victory having been 2-1 down with just over 20 minutes to play.

But that was as good as it got for the Malaysians two years ago as narrow losses to Vietnam and Myanmar saw them exit at the group stage for the first time since 2008.

“The AFF Suzuki Cup is a huge tournament which helped in boosting our confidence levels [in the past] while strengthening us as a squad,” added Syazwan, who also helped his country reach the quarter-finals of the AFC U23 Championship in China earlier in 2018.

“It also taught us about different playing styles and to know when we need to change the tempo of the game.

“In previous tournaments, Cambodia used a unique strategy on the field and we have learned to identify those patterns while adapting our style of play to combat that.

“We are at our competitive best when we play against Cambodia.”

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