KUALA LUMPUR – Johor Darul Takzim’s (JDT) hopes of authoring another historic episode in the annals of Malaysian football were dashed after a 0-5 crushing by Japanese outfit Urawa Red Diamonds, in their Asian Football Confederation Champions League match, in Japan tonight.
With the loss at the iconic Saitama Stadium in Japan, JDT who are comfortably leading the Malaysian Super League, failed to move into the quarterfinals after initially becoming the first Malaysian club to have successfully moved into the knockout stages of the competition.
The squad coached by Hector Bidoglio got off to a good start and took the fight to their more illustrious opponents early in the match but Arif Aiman Mohd Hanapi’s goal-bound effort in the 2nd minute was saved by Shusaku Nishikawa in the Urawa goal.
But just when JDT were trying to stamp their mark, the referee awarded a penalty to Urawa as early as the 7th minute when JDT goalkeeper Mohd Farizal Marlias was adjudged to have infringed Yusuke Matsuo and that gave Alexander Scholz the perfect opportunity to put his team in front from the spot.
JDT tried hard to get into the match and even had a good opportunity through Fernando Forestieri in the 16th minute but he failed to trap a good pass from Arif Aiman inside the box and that miss proved costly as three minutes later David Moberg Karlsson made it 2-0 in the 19th minute with a well-taken freekick.
After the second goal, Urawa Reds played with extra confidence and was only a matter of time before extending the lead and Karlsson who was a constant menace to the JDT defence, struck Urawa Red’s third and his second of the night in the 39th minute.
Trailing 0-3 at halftime, JDT brought in four new players in the second half, namely Muhammad Afiq Fazail, Muhammad Safawi Rasid, Muhammad Ramadhan Saifullah Usman and Muhammad Syahmi Safari.
However, the changes did little to change JDT’s fortune but instead conceded another two goals courtesy of second-half substitute Kasper Junker who struck in the 84th minute and well into injury time.
Having ended their campaign in the AFC Champions Cup, JDT will now focus all its attention towards the FA Cup final against Terengganu FC at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium on September 10. – Bernama, August 19, 2022
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