KUALA LUMPUR: National hockey coach Arul Selvaraj believes regular matches against top European sides will help his team progress in the sport.
The Speedy Tigers are in Belgium for friendly matches against European teams.
The world No 10 national hockey team will play four matches in Europe – one each against Belgium A and Belgium and two games against world No 11 France.
Malaysia take on world No 2 Belgium tomorrow.
Arul will use the matches to assess his players ahead of the Azlan Shah Cup on Nov 1-10 in Ipoh.
World No 12 South Korea, South Africa (No 14), Canada (No 15), Japan (No 17) and Pakistan (No 18) make up the teams in the Azlan Shah Cup.
"We need to play more European teams because they are the best in the world.
"If we want to do well in international tournaments we need to play and beat these teams," said Arul.
Malaysia rarely get a chance to play top European teams like Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, England and Spain.
And when they do, they get a thrashing.
The Azlan Shah Cup is part of the preparations for the World Cup in Bhubaneswar in January
Malaysia are in Group C with the Netherlands, New Zealand and Chile.