Irfan surprised at Elizari exclusion
coach Irfan Bakti was expecting a torrid time from Johor Darul Ta’zim’s (JDT) Fernando Elizari in Saturday’s Malaysia Cup semi-final return leg match but to his surprise, the midfielder was dropped by the club.
And Terengganu used Elizari’s absence to their advantage by bouncing back from 2-0 down to force a draw at Larkin Stadium in Johor Baru and qualify for the final 3-2 on aggregate.
“I was surprised that Elizari was not in their line up. They put two strikers in attack, meaning they wanted to score from crosses. True enough, there were plenty of those but we did well to win those aerial balls.
“I used Faiz Nasir as he is quick and skillful. I needed that movement in the middle to disrupt JDT’s good midfield. Maybe if Elizari had played, it would have been a problem for us.
“If we look at the first half, we didn’t attack much. We just contain the movements of JDT’s Gonzalo Cabrera, (Syafiq) Ahmad and (Safawi) Rasid.
“Even though JDT controlled the game, we had chances to score,” said Irfan.
Fernando Marquez (41st minute) and Cabrera (62nd) handed JDT a 2-0 lead before Terengganu captain Kipre Tchetche netted a brace in the 69th and 90th minutes.
Irfan also praised his goalkeeper Suffian Rahman for denying JDT on several occasions.
“Many had told me that Suffian was too old and also not good enough but I always had faith in him. I have known my 40-yearold goalkeeper for the last 25 years. I like his qualities and today, he silenced his critics.
“He is the team’s best goalkeeper and I will continue to use him,” Irfan added.
Manager Luciano Figueroa wasn’t complimentary about the manner in which his team struggled to put away chances.
“I just want to say thank you to the players because they gave their all. We are very sad because we are out,” said Figueroa.
“They created four or five chances in both legs and scored three goals. We created many chances in both games but we couldn’t convert.
“Today, we should have kept the ball when we were leading 2-0, but we didn’t.”