Kota Kinabalu: Sabah FC suffered a 0-4 defeat to Terengganu FC in the FA Cup’s first leg quarter final tie at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Gong Badak, Terengganu, Friday night.
The home side needed only nine minutes to take the lead when Badrul Afzan Razali scored the opener after a lay off by Manuel Ott.
Telmo Ferreira had a chance to level the score for Sabah FC three minutes later but his shot missed the crossbar by a whisker.
The constant pressure by the Terengganu side seemed to unrattle the Rhinos’ defence and they were twice denied by the crossbar before finding the net through Ismaheel Akinadein the 39th minute.
In the 42nd minute, Marin Pilj scored Terengganu’s third and Akinade netted his second deep into injury time to put the host 4-0 up at half time.
Both teams were unable to finish off the few chances created in the second half and the score remained 4-0 to Terengganu FC at the final whistle.
Datuk Ong Kim Swee said after the game that they were defensively poor and that allowed Terengganu to chalk up the big win.
“We have to accept that the defeat today was due to our weaknesses and carelessness.
“We conceded four easy goals in the first half as a result of our own wrong doings. We did not handle the situation as best as we should have.
“Terengganu FC have very good attacking players and they were able to grab the opportunities presented to them to score,” he said.
He admitted that it will be a tall order for them to overturn the four goals deficit in the return leg.
“We have to be realistic. To concede four goals is a big number but nothing is impossible and if we can produce a better performance in Likas with early goals then this may motivate the players but this doesn’t mean that we can progress with only two or three goals.
“However, we should not give up hope. We need to show that we can face up the challenge and try to score the goals that are needed.”
