JDT COACH PRAISES TEAM FOR ADVANCING TO ROUND OF 16 WITH OUTSTANDING WIN

ISKANDAR PUTERI, Feb 19 (Bernama) -- Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) head coach Hector Bidoglio is immensely pleased with his team for advancing to the Round of 16 in the Asian Champions League Elite (ACLE) by defeating Pohang Steelers FC 5-2  at Stadium Sultan Ibrahim (SSI) here last night.

The Argentine said despite facing difficulties early in the match, all the players managed to bounce back and deliver an outstanding performance to secure the victory.

“To me, all the players played extremely well, allowing us to advance to the next round. Even though the opponents scored first in the first half, the players managed to equalise and then score more to claim victory.

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“Thank you to all the supporters who gave their unwavering support to this team,” he said during a post-match press conference here.

The best player of the match, Oscar Arribas, expressed his gratitude, saying he was deeply moved by the presence of 35,590 supporters at SSI.

He said the overwhelming support helped boost the team’s morale, pushing them to deliver their best performance.

“The number of spectators this time was truly amazing. Thank you for supporting us. We will continue to give our best to achieve even greater success in the future,” he said.

JDT's goals came from Oscar Arribas (37th minute), Bergson Da Silva (52nd minute), Arif Aiman Hanapi (56th minute), Jese Rodriguez (90+7th min) and Jorge Obregon (90+15, penalty), while the visitors scored through Lee Ho-Jae (27th minute) and Kang Hyeon Je (80th minute).

Meanwhile, Pohang Steelers head coach Park Tae-Ha admitted that his team made too many mistakes and this was the main reason for their loss.

He said his players had given their best but had to accept the fact that the Southern Tigers displayed superior tactics.

Tae-Ha also claimed that his team were disturbed by firecracker explosions near their hotel on Monday and that this should not have happened, especially for FIFA-sanctioned matches.

"JDT has many talented players and a solid tactical approach but we are still proud of our performance. But we need to mention that the hotel where we were staying was disturbed by the sound of firecrackers, which was truly disruptive.

“The fireworks disturbed our players throughout the night, starting from 11 pm until 5 am. This is not the main reason we lost the game, but we want to mention it. We couldn’t understand why such an incident happened," he added.

In the knockout round scheduled to begin in March, the Southern Tigers will take on another South Korean club, Gwangju FC. Pohang Steelers were eliminated from the competition after finishing ninth.

-- BERNAMA