KELANTAN DARUL NAIM FC SHOW PROGRESS DESPITE LOSING 0-4 TO JDT

ISKANDAR PUTERI, June 16 (Bernama) -- Kelantan Darul Naim (KDN) assistant head coach Rezal Zambery Yahya was satisfied with his team's performance despite losing to Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) in an FA Cup match at Sultan Ibrahim Stadium here last night.

He said his boys showed improvement and fighting spirit to force the home team to slog for their only goal in the first half.

"For me, the players have already put up a game which we achieved what we wanted..in the first half we did try to restrain... we knew JDT would come to attack.

"In the second half in keeping to defend we lost the ball very quickly... that added more pressure on the defence and after that we were penalised with two penalties. We did bounced back after that but it was a uphill task as our attackers did not perform as planned," he said at the press conference after the match last night.

When asked about the weaknesses that need to be improved after this, Rezal Zambery admitted that the strikers need to improve to yield more goals in the upcoming matches.

"I think right now we are focusing on the 'attacking side' which means moving the whole team to focus more on attack, generate more attacks as it is important for us is to create as many opportunities (attacks)..if we did not 'create chances', it would be difficult for us to score goals. So for me now our weakness is the attacking side," he repeated.

In yesterday's match, the four JDT goals were produced by Fernando Forestieri, Romel Morales Francisco Geraldes and Arif Aiman ​​who led the JDT team to the semi-finals and will meet A1 Semi Pro League team, Universiti Malaysia scheduled to take place at the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium on June 28.

Meanwhile, JDT head coach Hector Bidoglio said that although his men showed a good performance in the match, there will always be room to improve the quality of the game.

"It was a difficult match, especially in the first half, the opposing team played well and it was difficult for us to find space to kick the ball in. We still managed to penetrate their goal.

"The second half was different because in terms of the dynamics of the game we improved by moving the ball from side to side and we attacked well so overall I was satisfied with their performance today.

"I don't like to touch on the percentage of their performance but the team is playing better week by week, there is a good improvement but we need to play better game by game," he said.

-- BERNAMA