Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) had a helping hand from the referee as the Super League title holders ended Malaysia Cup champions Kuala Lumpur's long unbeaten home record with a 3-0 win at the KLFA Stadium in Cheras on Wednesday.
The talking point, however, was referee Razlan Joffri Ali, who sent off KL midfielder Kenny Pallraj, issued seven yellow cards to Bojan Hodak's side, but none to JDT, and awarded the visitors a soft penalty.
A frustrated Hodak, who made wholesale changes to his team and played a three-man defence to stifle JDT, held his tongue when asked to comment about Razlan, who appeared to punish every 50-50 challenge by KL with a booking.
Since losing the Malaysia Cup final 2-0 to KL last season, ironically one in which Razlan refereed, JDT have won five matches in all competitions in 2022 without conceding a goal.
An opening goal by Fernando Forestieri, who profited from a mistake by Declan Lambert, in the 18th minute, followed by Bergson Da Silva's brace in the second half, inflicted a first home defeat in 23 matches on KL, who had not lost in Cheras since September 2019.
"Again 3-0, one more time," said JDT coach Benjamin Mora with his team also beating KL to win the Charity Cup in Iskandar Puteri by the same score on Feb 26.
"Very happy for the three points after a long time off because of national duty. We didn't have time to train a lot together. Anyway, we did a good job today.
"The players did a good job. They fought and tried to maintain a clean sheet. We need to fix and adjust some things, but the three points are most important."
The bookings and red card suggested an aggressive approach by KL, though that was not the consensus of most observers.
"We know who they are, how they play us," said Mora of KL.
"We know how they try to contain, that is their game and style. We have our game and style, and tonight ours was better."
Hodak managed to keep his cool with Razlan, who sent off Kenny in the 57th minute just as KL were threatening an equaliser after introducing Romel Morales at the break for his first appearance of the season.
Kenny slapped JDT's Leandro Velazquez in the back of the head in retaliation for the Argentine's swipe at him seconds earlier, with Velazquez's theatrical collapse prompting Razlan to issue the red card to Kenny, the second for a KL player in three Super League matches.
"I cannot comment because I would need to talk about the referee. If I don't talk about the referee then there is nothing to say. I cannot talk about the referee because I will be fined (by the FA of Malaysia)," said Hodak.
"But can I ask you? What was the crucial moment in the game?"
When a reporter answered "the red card," Hodak said: "You said everything, so I have nothing else to say. But there were seven yellows, so we will send a clip to FAM to tell them we are not happy with the referee. We will see what they do. I cannot comment on anything else. The red card killed the game."
Lambert's misjudgment of a long ball from Syahmi Safari allowed Forestieri to steal in behind and open the scoring before Bergson scored from the spot in the 82nd minute after Arif Aiman Hanapi went down too easily at the merest of touches by Nabil Hakim Bokhari.
Bergson, who had not scored in four previous meetings with KL, claimed his second at the end of a swift counter-attack just before the final whistle.
"We only made one mistake, and it was a 50-50 match. Much better than in Johor. I have nothing to say to my boys because they did a good job today," said Hodak.
"I cannot complain about any player today. I can complain only about somebody else."
On the abrupt end to his team's unbeaten home record, Hodak said: "It was a long unbeaten record, it was fantastic, but it shouldn't have finished this way. Now 3-0 looks really bad, and it seemed they killed us, but it was never like that."