Liberia international striker Patrick Ronaldinho Wleh’s club Selangor FA crashed out of Asia’s second most elite club competition, the Asia Football Confederation Cup after a narrow 1-0 loss away at the Singapore Sports Hub on Tuesday, May 10.
Singaporean midfielder Yasir Hanapi scored the match’s only goal in the 30th minute as the hosts went on to collect a second successive 1-0 victory against Selangor.
Selangor needed a draw while the Rovers needed a win. They began the game with a succession of set pieces that put some pressure on the Tampines Rovers’ defense. However, Selangor failed to make their numerical advantage count.
Selangor’s best moment of the first half came in added time when Argentinian forward Mauro Olivi fired a centrally-located free kick low into the bottom corner, but the Rovers’ goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud pushed the ball away to safety.
For the second half, Selangor was the best side and looked set to get a goal. Selangor started to come into the game with a succession of set pieces that put some pressure on the Rover’s. Unfortunately, the Malaysia Super League team struggled to create clear chances with Olivi and Wleh missing several golden opportunities.
Selangor will now need to shift their focus back to Malaysia Super League duties.
Wleh expressed his disappointment in Selangor’s exit. He told The Bush Chicken that his team would learn from their mistakes and improve in upcoming fixtures.
“As a footballer, I’m really disappointed that my team is out of the competition. We were all hoping for the best result, but unfortunately, we lost. The result is totally unacceptable. We have ourselves to be blame for our mistakes. We know we made lots of mistakes, and we are going to learn from them to improve in our next matches,†Wleh said.
Feature photo courtesy of Patrick Wleh
