Malaysia's campaign ended in the quarter-finals of the AFC U23 Championship 2018 but only after a spirited effort which captured the imagination of their fans.

Although they lost 2-1 to Korea Republic in the quarter-finals, Ong's players impressed as they overcome the shock of conceding a goal to Cho Jae-wan just 12 seconds into the match to give the 2016 runners-up a stiff challenge. 

N. Thanabalan pulled them level but Korea Republic advanced to the semi-finals with Han Seung-gyu scoring the winner five minutes before the final whistle.

"We did well in the AFC U23 Championship but this should just be the start. We must aim towards Olympic qualification," said Ong upon returning to Kuala Lumpur.

Ong’s team fought back to level with N. Thanabalan after Cho Jae-wan had given the Koreans the lead with this team’s first attack of the game, while Han Seung-gyu claimed the winner for Kim Bong-gil’s side five minutes from time to set up a semi-final meeting against Uzbekistan on Tuesday.

“To concede in the first minute of the game, it’s a lack of concentration and when you play against a good team this is what they will do to you,” said Ong. “I hope that my players will learn because we had not settled and we were punished for a lack of concentration.

“But, overall, they showed a better performance than they did against Saudi Arabia. We controlled most of the situations after the first goal but unfortunately after equalising we stopped playing again.

The Seoul E-Land FC midfielder fired home after only 11.35 seconds of his side’s quarter-final win over Malaysia, to narrowly beat the previous competition record of 11.47 seconds which was registered by Uzbekistan’s Dostonbek Khamdamov at the 2016 continental gathering in Qatar.

As rapid as Cho’s goal may have been, it was, however, still not as quick as Sebastian Soria’s 2013 strike for Lekhwiya in an AFC Champions League encounter against Pakhtakor when the Qatari star opened the scoring after only 9.34 seconds of the game in Tashkent.

Elsewhere, Ali Mabkhout can lay claim to the fastest AFC Asian Cup finals goal courtesy of his strike on 14 seconds for the United Arab Emirates against Bahrain in Australia.

Photo: AFC

The game looked set to go into extra-time after Malaysian substitute N. Thanabalan cancelled out Cho Jae-wan’s opener after just 11.35 seconds – the competition's fastest ever goal – but Han intervened in the dying minutes to set up a semi-final clash with Uzbekistan.

The defeat was a cruel blow for a Malaysian side who had shown great maturity and application to fight back after such a dispiriting start, which saw them concede with so little time on the clock at Kunshan Stadium.

Kim’s side took the lead in improbable rapid fashion when Cho’s volley flashed across Haziq Nadzli’s goalmouth before clipping the inside of his left post and bouncing over the line.

To their credit, Ong Kim Swee’s players refused to panic and steadily gained a foothold in the game as the first half wore on. Nor Azam’s passing in midfield gave the Malaysians a creative outlet and Safawi Rashid’s willingness to cover huge amounts of ground gave the Southeast Asians hope.