He admitted that there was a sombre mood in the team for a couple of days after the 4-0 defeat to Jordan in the opening Group E fixture on Monday.

However, the 33-year-old Sabah FC striker said the players are ready to bounce back with a victory against Bahrain at the Jassim Bin Hammad Stadium to revive their chances of advancing to the Round of 16.

“It’s time now to get ready for the next game, we can’t continue to feel down about the previous result, we have to focus on the next one.

“I always want to go out there, score and do the best for Malaysia. It’s my job to score, so I will give my best as always.

“We know it’s not going to be an easy game. Bahrain are strong opponents, with a similar ranking to Jordan, so we need to go out and correct the things that went wrong against Jordan and give a better performance,” he said at the team’s hotel here today.

Darren, who has notched six goals for Malaysia since his debut in 2016, said he did not mind teaming up with any player in attack because the most important thing was to ensure the success of the game plan.

“It doesn’t matter who I’m playing with. We are all professional footballers, we’ve trained long enough to understand how we play,” said Darren, who scored the winning goal when Malaysia beat Taiwan 1-0 in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers last November.

Defender Shahrul Saad said an early goal against Bahrain would brighten Malaysia’s chances of securing a victory.

The 30-year-old Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) player also hopes to get on the score sheet in the game.

Malaysia have lost to Bahrain in their last three encounters since 2013. Their last meeting saw Bahrain win 2-1 in the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers at Bukit Jalil in 2022.

Bahrain are currently ranked 86th in the world, while Malaysia are 130th.

Following the match against Bahrain, Kim Pan-gon’s men will close the group stage challenge against two-time champions South Korea on Jan 25.