T-Team facing tough hurdle to overturn first leg loss

It was a dream come true for Negri Sembilan but a recurring nightmare for T-Team on Tuesday.

 

Negri beat T-Team 4-2 in the quarter-final first-leg at Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah Stadium in Kuala Terengganu, and are now on course for their third consecutive final.

T-Team succumbed to a third consecutive defeat in all competitions at the hands of Negri this season, and they are left with a mountain to climb in the second-leg at Paroi Stadium on Saturday.

Negri Sembilan coach Mohd Azraai Khor Abdullah said the win was a bonus as he would have been happy to return home with just a point.

 

"The place in the final is now ours to lose and we will do everything in our power to make sure that Negri Sembilan will be playing in the Malaysia Cup final again.

"But there is another 90 minutes to play for and we are not taking for granted the two-goal cushion," he said.

Azraai was full of praise for his players, especially Terengganu-born striker Hairuddin Omar who managed to score a brace in the convincing victory.

"Our players played their hearts out and they came out triumphant once again over T-Team who have always been a formidable opponents capable of beating the best of teams in the country.

"But in football, anything can still happen in the return leg even when we are playing in our own backyard and our boys will have to be at their best again to stop T-Team from staging a comeback," he said.

T-Team coach Yunus Alif said his worst fear came true when T-Team failed to make use of their home advantage.

"Our team are funny in a way that we tend to beat certain teams over and over again but when we lose to a certain team, we will keep losing to them.

"Selangor and Kelantan should know how it feels to keep losing to us just like we know how it feels to keep losing, first to Kuala Lumpur and now to Negri Sembilan," he said.

According to Yunus, all good or bad things will have to end sometime and he hopes the jinx against Negri will end on Saturday.

"Our goalkeeper Zairie Hafizie Idris had stage fright (Tuesday) and because of that we had to pay a heavy price by conceding at least two soft goals.

"But his replacement, Jibrail Kamaron Baharin, did well in keeping a clean sheet for most of the second half and we hope he will continue to do just that in the return leg for us," he said.