Sabah sink Kuching with late goal 

KUCHING: Sabah FC recorded a 2-1 victory over host Kuching City FC in a fierce action that took place at the Sarawak State Stadium last night.

Kuching City aggressively created chances but the lack of finishing and agility saw Aidil Sharin Sahak and Sabah’s men deadlocked without a goal in the first half of the match.

The start of the second half saw the deadlock finally ended when Saddil Ramdani put Sabah FC in front in the 66th minute but Kuching City fought back to equalise in the 82nd minute through Zahrul Nizwan Joe Kifli.

The hosts’ joy was however, short-lived when Gabriel Schmegel Wotter Peres struck Sabah’s winning goal in the 86th minute and despite Gabriel being shown a red card in injury time due to a foul, Sabah FC maintained the 2-1 scoreline until the final whistle.

In another match, Terengganu FC (TFC) edged Kelantan Darul Naim FC 2-1 at the Selayang Municipal Council Stadium to remain fourth in the Super League standings.

The Turtles broke the deadlock in the 11th minute when skipper Muhammad Safawi Rasid’s free-kick hit the Kelantan wall and Muhammad Alif Zakaria latched onto the rebound to let fly a screamer past Kelantan goalkeeper Mohammad Fikri Che Soh.

The Turtles thought they had doubled their lead in the 58th minute when Muhammad Akhyar Abdul Rashid pounced on another Muhammad Safawi free-kick, which hit the post, to slot home but it was ruled out after a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) check for offside.

But Terengganu did not have to wait long for the second goal as Muhammad Safawi got his name on the scoresheet when he put the finishing touch to a cross from Nurillo Tukhtasinov in the 65th minute.

Oday Ali Abdalrahim Kharoub pulled one back for Kelantan in the dying minutes (90+5) from the penalty spot.

Meanwhile, Penang FC finally ended their fourth consecutive defeat when they managed to defeat the seventh-placed team in the league, PDRM FC 2-0 at the City Stadium.

Despite playing in rain, the visitors seemed to have more possession as soon as the match started but the incident in the eighth minute caused PDRM FC to lose a defender when Amir Saiful was shown a red card by the match referee following a scuffle with Nabil Latpi.

The hosts did not waste the opportunity to score the first goal of the match in the 38th minute through Rodrigo Dias’ header from Mohamad Al Hafiz from the right side of the field.

The second half saw PDRM FC try to bounce back to equalize by trying to make several attempts but failing to produce any goals.

Luck was clearly not on PDRM FC’s side when Wan Rohaimi Wan Ismail’s team added a goal in the 55th minute thanks to midfielder Nik Akif Syahiran who beat PDRM FC goalkeeper See Tian Keat.

Continuous heavy rain forced the match to be stopped for a while in the 86th minute and as soon as it resumed, both teams tried to press for a goal but the water-logged pitch conditions made it difficult for the players to move.

The 2-0 score remained until the final whistle, thus Penang FC managed to move up one step to 10th in the league table.

League standings

(Note: Kedah Darul Aman docked three points over salary arrears issues; KL docked six points). – BERNAMA