Sabah got a 3-0 blast at the hands of defending champions Perak in a Group C match in Ipoh while in Group D match Melaka United came back from a one-goal deficit to beat Police in their opening Malaysia Cup matches on Sunday.
“We gave Perak too much respect,” said Sabah head coach jelius Ating after his team’s defeat at the Perak Stadium.
“There is still a lot more to learn to play at a higher level of competition. We hope to rectify the negatives we saw in the match against Perak to keep our hopes of a top-two finish in the group and advance to the knockout stage.”
Perak opened the scoring through Brenda Gan just before the half-time break. Brenda took advantage of a deflected ball that came his way. His half-volley took a wicked bounce in the six-yard box that caught goalkeeper Rozaimie Rohim on the wrong foot.
That lucky break gave Perak added confidence in the second half and in the 51st minute the homesters were 2-0 up. This time Careca’s unstoppable shot from inside the box came off a Norhakim Hassan assist.
Rohaimie was beaten for the third time. This came with the last kick of the match when Rohaimie failed to make a clean catch from a freekick and Leandro Santos was at hand to make the scoreline more respectable.
At the Hang Jebat Stadium in Melaka, the home team was given a rude shock when Police grabbed the lead in the eighth minute through Lee Chang-hoon when he beat goalkeeper Ahmad Solehin Mamat.
Minutes later Nazrin Nawi put Melaka on level terms from a well-executed freekick. Philippines international added the second for Melaka on 55 minutes before Nazrin completed his brace six minutes later. BY RIZAL ABDULLAH
