Kota Kinabalu: Sabah FC head coach Martin Stano wants his players to fulfil their potential and go as far as they can in the Malaysia Cup competition.
This followed the team’s goalless draw with Kuching City FC in the return leg quarterfinal tie at the Likas Stadium on Monday.
They booked a place in the semi-final against Sri Pahang FC with a 1-0 aggregate following the first leg win at the State Stadium in Kuching a week ago.
“We are happy to make the semi-final. It was a very tough match. I had warned the players that the 1-0 win in the first leg was not an advantage.
The first half was very open and both teams wanted to score the goal. However, in the second half we dropped down a little bit and lost our concentration.
"As a result, we were overwhelmed by Kuching City FC but luckily we managed to come back to the game after 20 minutes and were able to create some scoring chances as well,” said Martin.
He also gave credit to his predecessor Datuk Ong Kim Swee who left the team a month ago.
“This team has big potential and we will try to go as far as possible in the Malaysia Cup competition.
“Credit must be given to Ong. It was him who created this team three years ago and we just continue the good work started by him,” he added.
The match itself lived up to expectation as the visitors gave their everything right from the start to try to turn the table but the Rhinos’ defence marshalled by captain Dominic Tan was able to thwart any of their scoring attempts.
Sabah FC also had their moments with shots by Miguel Angel Cifuentes and Stuart Wilkin were denied by Kuching City FC’s custodian Wan Muhd Azraie Wan Teh in the first half .
Kuching City FC had a strong start in the second half and was denied a penalty claim in the 51st minute when Damien Lim was cleared of any wrongdoing on Jordan Mintah in the penalty box after match referee Suhaizi reviewed the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).
