Two-faced Tigers The question is, which Malaysia will turn up tomorrow?

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KUALA LUMPUR - Safee Sali is dead certain that Malaysia can overcome the two-goal deficit from the first leg, to vanquish Singapore and write this Tigers' side even deeper into the annals of Malaysian football.

And there are precious few who would doubt him.

K Rajagobal's side bounced back from a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Indonesia at last year's AFF Suzuki Cup to triumph over the same opponents in the final.

The year before, 1-0 down to Thailand and staring at the prospect of being booted out in the group stages of the Laos South-east Asian (SEA) Games, they rallied to score two goals with just three minutes of regulation time left, eventually going on to take the gold medal.

Trailing 5-3 in the two-leg second round World Cup qualifier, the stage is set for the Tigers to do the very same to Singapore tomorrow.

"We're a young team, we've lost by bigger margins than this but have bounced back. We don't feel any pressure, and we know we can do better at Bukit Jalil Stadium," Safee told Today.

But both the No 10 and Rajagobal are acutely aware of the hideous alter ego of Malaysia's Mr Hyde that is prone to showing his grotesque face without warning.

"The players have shown character and a strong mentality when we've been down, but I cannot guarantee you that they will have that mental consistency for the entire 90 minutes," admitted Rajagobal.

"These boys have played against the likes of Indonesia and Vietnam in difficult situations and won, but they showed that they are human, sometimes completely unfocused, nervous, and stressed," added the 55-year-old coach.

There is no clearer illustration of this than in last Saturday's fixture against Singapore at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

The Tigers took the lead within 25 seconds, then in a complete turnaround, conceded four goals in the next 45 minutes.

But their ability to claw their way back to 4-3 and coming within a whisker of levelling the tie emphatically proved the presence of a Dr Jekyll-type personality in the Tigers' psyche. It is just a question of which side of Malaysia shows up at Bukit Jalil tomorrow.

"A coach is a psychologist and motivator … And I just have to keep driving this young group on. I won't push the panic button, instead we'll keep to what we believe in, and carry on," vowed Rajagobal.

Malaysia will be without the services of their suspended skipper Safiq Rahim, a player both tactically and psychologically influential in the Tigers' engine room, a fact Rajagobal has to deal with.

"I agree, Singapore controlled the midfield last Saturday, but now that we're forced to make a change, Singapore will be worried about what we're going to do.

"Aidil Zafuan is fit again, and he has more caps than any player in our defence, his experience will be a confidence booster," he said.

Injuring his ankle in a friendly against English giants Arsenal two weeks ago, Aidil is back in full training and is likely to replace Muslim Ahmad in Malaysia's central defence, which struggled to handle Lions forwards Aleksandar Duric and Qiu Li.

While Safee expressed similar concern over his team's "lack of concentration in defence", his personal belief saw him score a brace against Liverpool in a friendly two weeks ago, and the double against Singapore last Saturday has seen his confidence sky rocket.

He believes the 90,000 horde of yellow at Bukit Jalil tomorrow will see the good side of the Tigers come to the fore.

Said Safee: "The crowd is very important to us, a big crowd will give us more confidence and it'll be good because I don't think Singapore has seen a crowd that size."