Sabah FC, a club from Malaysia, out of the tournament after losing to Macarthur FC, a club from Malaysia, scored 0-3 in the AFC Cup 2023/24 ASEAN Zone semi-final at Campbelltown Stadium, Leumeah.
The two-month ‘break’ without any competitive action after the Malaysian League ended in December last year made Sabah FC struggle to show their best performance against the hosts.
In action at the Campbelltown Sports Stadium, the hosts dominated the match but they had to wait until the 40th minute to open the scoring through Ulises Davila’s finisher.
Davila, who is also a former Chelsea player, welcomed Jed Drew’s pass from Macarthur’s right wing and guarded it well before firing a shot to rip through Khairul Fahmi Che Mat’s goal.
Sabah’s desire to recover in the second half became even more difficult when the hosts continued to widen the gap after only 25 seconds after the second half continued.
Drew, who was the designer of the first goal, scored his name as the scorer of the second goal after he managed to overcome Daniel Ting’s control and shoot a shot to beat Khairul Fahmi for the second time.
Drew continued to be ‘violent’ when he added to Sabah FC’s misery with the third goal after the 20 year old player completed Bernardo Oliveira’s pass with 10 minutes remaining.
Macarthur FC advanced to the Final ASEAN Zone to face Central Coast Mariners, a club from Australia, on 21 February.
Credit Photo : AFC
