Kota Kinabalu: Sabah FC edged Kuching City FC 1-0 in the Malaysia Cup quarter-final first leg tie held at the State Stadium on Sunday.
It was end to end stuff right from the start but despite plenty of scoring chances, the players found it hard to convert.
Muhammad Farhan Roslan’s close range header in the 32nd minute following a free kick taken by Saddil Ramdani was the only goal that made the difference in the fiercely contested match.
Sabah FC head coach Martin Stano in his first match in charge of the team was proud of his players.
“I am very proud of our boys, especially the national team players who were willing to help us in this tough tie.
“It was really a derby game, tactically, physically and emotionally.
“We knew it was not going to be easy even though we won here last week in the Super League game but this is a Malaysia Cup and something different.
“Kuching City are a very good team and we had prepared well for this. Our target today was to score goals and not to concede and we managed to achieve that.
“However, it is a home and away tie. We may have won 1-0 but the chances for both teams to progress is still 50-50, so we won’t take it for granted,” he said.
Meanwhile, his counterpart Aidil Sharin Sahak lamented set-piece goal concession for the loss.
“Basically we made the same mistakes as in the last game and it was a set piece again.
“I think overall the boys gave a very good performance. Sabah are a strong team but to have a good domination of the game showed that we were much better as we kept on attacking despite being a goal down.
“However, we have to learn and not make the same bad habit by conceding from set pieces again. We still have 90 minutes to play and hopefully we can get a little bit of luck against them,” he said.
The two teams will meet again in the second leg scheduled on Monday (Dec 23) at Likas Stadium.
