Kota Kinabalu: Sabah FC’s fairytale run in this year’s FA Cup competition came to an end in the final after losing 0-5 to Johor Darul Ta’zim FC at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium on Sunday.
The Rhinos, who last won the Cup in 1995, had no answer to the injury plague opponents and were on the receiving end right from the start.
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Despite missing several first team players in the likes of Bergson Da Silva, Romel Morales and Ariff Aiman in the line-up, the defending champions were just too strong for Sabah FC to handle.
They took only eight minutes to open the scoring through Eddy Isafilov and with Dominic Tan on the bench, stand-in captain Rawilson Batuil had a night to forget when he conceded an own goal in the 20th minute before JDT FC extended their lead to three goals from Jairo Da Silva three minutes later.
Although Sabah FC were much better defensively at the restart and JDT FC were unable to make the breakthrough on goal, any chance of a comeback as they did against Selangor FC in the semi-finals were dashed when Oscar Aribas scored the fourth in the 64th minute.
Manuel Hidalgo then scored the final goal in stoppage-time to make it five for the champions.
The match on Sunday was also the Rhinos’ second defeat to a Johor side in the FA Cup final following their previous encounter in 1998 at Likas Stadium when Johor came up tops with a 1-0 victory.
