The team to beat: Johor Darul Ta’zim’s Bergson Da Silva (centre) in action in the Super League. JDT are dominating the season like no other. — Bernama
PETALING JAYA: Penang coach Manzoor Azwira has urged his boys to take a leaf out of AS Roma’s Europa League semi-final win over Bayer Leverkusen when they take on Johor Darul Ta’zim in the FA Cup quarter-finals at the Sultan Ibrahim Stadium in Iskandar Puteri today.
To motivate the Panthers, Manzoor showed them some statistics from Roma’s second-leg match against Leverkusen.
Holding a 1-0 lead from the first-leg, Jose Mourinho produced a masterclass in tactical organisation when they had only 28% possession but still held the German side 0-0 in their own backyard to advance into the final.
“If we want to attack, we have to win ball possession. We know JDT don’t lose the ball that easily. A lot of teams face that difficulty against them,” he said.
“I’m going to use Roma’s tactics against Bayer Leverkusen. Roma didn’t have much possession but they are in the final.
“We don’t need to control the game but with the one chance we have, we will look to score.”
Manzoor said the Southern Tigers, the defending champions, are fancied to cruise to another big win going by their relentless high-scoring acts in the Super League.
But he has other ideas.
“We have to admit their record this season so far is formidable. But we’re not giving up. This is a knockout game, and we will give our all. Quality wise, we are nowhere near them but the boys know that with great spirit and teamwork, anything can happen.
“Nobody expected us to beat Kedah in the first round but we did. Kedah attacked a lot but we were able to stop them. Though we conceded, our boys fought till the end with some counters.
We hope will be an inspiration for the boys. We did a lot of video analysis on JDT. As strong as they are, they can still make mistakes. Even those in form could suddenly play badly. If that happens, we will take advantage of it.”
