Just one goal in mind
Rhinos out to overcome narrow deficit at Tigers’ den
Trailing 0-1 on aggregate, it is not a ‘’mission impossible’’ for Sabah to bounce back in the second leg of their Malaysia Cup semi-final against Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) at the Sultan Ibrahim Stadium on Sunday.
Sabah coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee said that losing by one goal is not a big gap, but his players need to stay focused and follow the game plan in place in the Southern Tigers’ fortress.
“What is important is to focus on the match, we are not far enough behind to recover, so in 90 minutes (regulation time) or 120 minutes (with extra time), anything can happen in Johor,’’ he said.
“Like tonight, the players showed good fighting spirit despite playing without seven key young players like Hanafie (Tokyo) and Gerald (Gadit) who gave a positive display and were not nervous in a big match.”
Arif Aiman Mohd Hanapi’s goal in the 34th minute earned the victory for the visitors against the Rhinos.
In the meantime, Kim Swee said he needs to assess the fitness of some players including Baddrol Bakhtiar and Rizal Ghazali who suffered injuries in the match, before making a decision about the starting XI for the second leg.
Regarding his action on entering the pitch in the first half of the match, Kim Swee admitted that it was his mistake and referee Razlan Joffri Ali’s decision to show him the yellow card was justified.
Meanwhile, JDT coach Hector Bidoglio said his players tried to move the ball fast, but Sabah’s defence had been really difficult to deal with and hindered JDT from playing their game.
“It was a very difficult game, Sabah are a strong team for us to handle. But we must move on and improve day by day. And we need to be better in the second leg,” he said.
The first leg also turned out to be a highly-charged affair, as a total of 11 yellow cards - seven for Sabah and four to JDT - and one red card were issued.
JDT midfielder Mohd Feroz Baharudin, however, will miss the return leg after being sent off for a second bookable offence in the 73rd minute.
The Southern Tigers, who are gunning for a quadruple after winning the Charity Shield, Super League and FA Cup this season, came to Kota Kinabalu gunning for victory and it showed as they began the game in aggressive fashion.
JDT’S prolific striker Bergson Da Silva sounded an early warning when he let fly a screamer as early as the third minute, forcing Sabah goalkeeper Damien Lim to push it out.
The visitors continued to go on the offensive and, after several near-misses, found the breakthrough when Arif Aiman beat four Sabah players before firing a left-footed shot from outside the box for his first goal in the Malaysia Cup campaign.
The Southern Tigers had a good chance to double the score after the break but Bergson fluffed his line when his weak spot-kick in the 59th minute was easily saved by Damien.