IT WAS a heart-breaking loss, not only for Ceres Negros FC, but most especially for its home crowd at Panaad Park and Stadium Thursday night when Muhammad Izzd in Shafiq and Song Uiyoung scored late goals for the visiting Home United of Singapore.
Shafiq broke the scoreless deadlock for Home United off a penalty from outside the box in the 80th minute past Ceres FC keeper Toni Doblas and later doubled the score-line on a penalty kick by Uiyoung in the extra time (90+3).
Home United head coach Aidil Sharin Sahak downplayed the thought of a sweet revenge after its 2-nil loss to Ceres in the Asean Zonal Finals last year.
“We have big respect for Ceres FC. I believed my team played well tonight despite having few of my key players out for suspension,” he said. “We have worked hard especially in the second half and succeeded.”
Going into their next game against Persija Jakarta of Indonesia on May 8 at Jalan Besar Stadium, Home’s Sahak said that his team should be ready and have this win against Ceres FC as their motivation.
Ceres FC head coach Risto Vidacovic admitted they have underestimated the opponents. “This is a lesson learned for us not to be complacent and expect that we can easily handle our opponents. There is no easy opponent,” he said.
Given that the team has been winning games for two months, he never thought that Ceres FC would yield to Home United before its home crowd. “I will review the game to know what went wrong. In spite the defeat I still have the trust to my players. I believe in them,” he added.
Ceres FC will next play against Yangon United of Myanmar on May 9 at the Panaad Park and Stadium for the ASEAN Zone semi-finals. (HGD)