KUALA LUMPUR: Super League champion Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) head coach Esteban Solari (pix) views the 2023 Malaysia Cup final against Terengganu FC as a perfect stage to add another piece of silverware to their collection and deliver another quality performance.
JDT, the three-time Malaysia Cup champions, will face Terengganu who are gunning for a second title after their last victory in 2001 at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil here, tomorrow night.
Solari said as a coach, his focus was always on the team’s performance while JDT is a club born to hunt as many trophies as possible.
“As a coach, I am looking for performance, if they perform well that’s what I’m looking for, I know that for this club, we are a winning type of club and we go for titles all the time.
“So we will look for both tomorrow, a good performance and the title, let’s see if we can achieve both,” he told a pre-match press conference here, today.
Commenting further, Solari, who won the Charity Shield, FA Cup and Super League in his first year as JDT coach said his team has been preparing for tomorrow’s final for the past 11 months.
“We have been preparing for the last 11 months for this, at least since I’m here, and this team always has the champion mentality and all the players are hungry to go onto the pitch and play this game and to win another title for JDT,” the 43-year-old Argentine said.
Commenting on Terengganu, Solari said the Turtles showed significant improvement and had many quality players, but insisted that his team only needed to carry out the instructions well to seal a victory.
Meanwhile, JDT captain Jordi Amat expects a tough match.
“I remember when we played them away, the first half was really hard so I expect something similar, but like the coach said we will try to play as always, taking care of the ball, playing good football and be very focused. It’s a big game tomorrow and I’m looking forward to playing here tomorrow,” the defender said.
For the record, Terengganu lost 0-2 and 1-3 to JDT in Super League matches this season, thus the Turtles have failed to record any win against their opponents in five meetings. –Bernama
