Kota Kinabalu: Sabah FC are in the driving seat of their Malaysia Cup quarter-final tie against Kuching FC after a 1-0 away win at the State Stadium on Saturday night.
In a tightly contested derby match, the home side were the first to make an attempt on goal but the effort by Alif Hassan was denied by Rhinos’ custodian Damien Lim, and minutes later, Japanese import Taiki Kagayama had a chance to put Sabah FC ahead but his strike was well saved by Shaiful Wazizi Mohammad.
Both sides unable to put away many scoring chances created in the first half and the deadlock was only broken in the 69th minute when Sabah FC skipper Baddrol Bakhtiar slotted in at the far post after the Kuching City FC goalkeeper pushed away Farhan Roslan’s initial attempt into his path.
The home side with the support of some 20,000 supporters in the stadium tried hard to search for the equaliser after the setback but to no avail until the final whistle.
Despite the win, head coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee said there is still the return leg and he wants his players to be cautious.
“It was a good result but this does not mean that we have qualified for the semi-final even though we will be playing at home in the second leg.
“We cannot afford to take it easy because Kuching City showed a very good performance especially after falling behind,” he said after the game.
Meanwhile, the return leg will be played on Friday (November 11) here at Likas Stadium and the winner will next take on the winner of the Johor Darul Ta’zim FC and Kelantan FC tie where the former hold a comfortable 3-0 first leg lead.
