Written By: Kenneth Ho

Courts Young Lions coach Juergen Raab asserted that his team were overwhelmed by pressure and that it led to the 1-1 draw with Harimau Muda.

Harimau had taken an early lead after Syahrul Azwari struck in the first minute and were looking good for the win until Irfan Fandi’s goal in the 88th minute.

While Raab credited his side for their unwavering attitude right till the last minute, he felt that they failed to adequately recover from the shock of conceding early on.

“We know we can make the step up to seventh place (with a win over Harimau), and my team were so highly motivated,” Raab said.

“But they were shocked in the first minute and the pressure started to get to them. I felt it on the bench that we were not able play. No player played very well, they wanted to but there were so many mistakes.”

Raab also felt that the Young Lions’ fight for seventh spot has become much harder, as they are three points away from Harimau with three games remaining.

“Now it’s not in our own hands to climb to seventh… it’s not over, we got three matches to do this,” he added.

Harimau coach Razip Ismail expressed his disappointment at not securing all three points but he believed his side cannot be faulted for failing to do so.

“Performance-wise the players were excellent from the begin till the end, they gave everything and fought for everything,” Razip said. “I felt we were unlucky not to get three points”

Razip was especially pleased with his side’s defence as they restricted the Young Lions to only one shot on target all game.

“The way we defended, it was excellent even though the second half they kept throwing long balls in but we defended well,” he said.