English World

(Football) Selangor edge closer to Malaysia Cup title with win over PKNS

KUALA LUMPUR: Defending champions Selangor took a step closer to retaining the Malaysia Cup after edging PKNS 4-3 in the quarter-final first leg but Kedah were held by Premier League side Negri Sembilan on Sunday.

Selangor blew a 3-1 lead in Shah Alam as the Premier League’s promotion chasers PKNS fought back to level at 3-3 before Mauro Olive grabbed the winner five minutes from time while Kedah spurned several scoring chances to settle for a 0-0 result against Negri at Paroi.

Felda United, second in the Super League, were also held 1-1 at Kuala Terengganu T-Team after Francis Doe scored his sixth goal of the tournament to join Patrick Wleh of PKNS at the top of scoring charts and cancel Safawi Rashid’s third-minute opener for the hosts.

Kelantan failed to take advantage playing against a Police team which had two players sent off to crash to a 2-1 defeat in Kota Baru.

Safuwan Baharudin and Guilherme De Paula scored early in the first half for the visitors either side of an equaliser by Indra Putra Mahayuddin before K. Reuben and De Paula were red carded.

Negri had only one foreign player in Taylor Regan to call upon due to injuries while Kedah welcomed South Korean defender Bang Seung-hyun and New Zealand striker Shane Smeltz back to the side.

Kaharuddin Abdul Rahman was at full-stretch to turn away Kedah striker Thiago Augusto Ferandes’ deflected shot from outside the box early on before the same player directed a point-blank header at the goalkeeper.

Baddrol Bakhtiar’s curling effort was punched away by Kaharuddin before Fernandes flashed an effort across the goal from close range. Neither side managed to find a breakthrough in the second as the game fizzled out to a draw.

“I thank my teammates for playing well and helping the team keep a cleansheet,” said man-of-the-match Kaharuddin. “We hope for the best in the next game.”

All was forgiven as Ugo Ukah, who headbutted teammate Bunyamin Umar in a league match last week, needed just five minutes to head in Selangor’s opening goal after Azmi Muslim’s free-kick came back off the crossbar.

Ahmad Hazwan Bakri, Selangor’s two-goal hero in last year’s final against Kedah, scored from outside the box in the 24th minute make it 2-0 with his second goal of the tournament.

Juan Cobelli pulled one back for PKNS four minutes later after heading Matias Jadue’s cross but R. Gopinathan restored Selangor’s two-goal advantage in the 52nd minute.

Gonzalo Soto pounced on the rebound after Gabriel Guerra’s free-kick hit the bar to reduce the deficit for PKNS on the hour before Guerra levelled in the 74th. Substitute Olivi had the final say to give Selangor an edge ahead of the return leg on Sept 17.

-New Straits Times

Komen & Pendapat
Facebook
Twitter

Terbaru


!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");