KUALA LUMPUR: Pahang held on to their two-point lead at the top of the Super League standings after a 1-1 draw with defending champions Johor Darul Ta’zim in Kuantan on Saturday.
Darul Ta’zim, with Argentine winger Patito Rodriguez and Singapore midfielder Hariss Harun missing from the match-day squad, will be the happier of the two teams with a point which keeps their title defence alive.
Pahang were on a seven-match winning going into the game at the Darulmakmur Stadium and were rocked in the 19th minute when Luciano Figueroa almost put the visitors ahead with a shot from outside the box which beat goalkeeper Khairul Azhan Khalid but not the crossbar.
With clear-cut chances at a premium, it took until the 67th minute for a breakthrough which Darul Ta’zim found through Amri Yahyah. A 54th-minute replacement for Mahalli Jasuli, Amri was played through by Jasazrin Jamaluddin through the Pahang defence 13 minutes later before rounding Khairul Azhan and slotting into the empty net.
But the visitors only led for three minutes as Pahang’s Nigerian striker Dickson Nwakaeme scored from close range after R. Gopinathan turned a loose ball across the six-yard box when Darul Ta’zim failed to clear at a corner-kick.
Nwakeme should have snatched the winner for Pahang but his effort from inside the box hit the post in the 77th minute.
The draw allowed Selangor and Perak to close in on the top two with wins over Terengganu and Sime Darby respectively, and just a point behind Darul Ta’zim.
Selangor downed Terengganu 2-0 in Shah Alam after Hadi Yahya put them ahead in the fourth minute before defender Robert Cornthwaite added the second in the 23rd.
Perak rallied from a goal down in Selayang to beat bottom-side Sime Darby 3-1 with Horace James (30th), Charles Chad (45th) and Nasir Basharuddin (75th) overturning Marco Perovic’s 15th-minute for the home team.
Christie Jayaseelan curled in an 11th-minute effort for his first goal for Felda United since his April transfer from Armed Forces as the visitors came away from Kuching with a 2-0 win over Sarawak.
Bojan Miladinovic blazed a penalty kick over in the 25th minute to spurn a chance to put Felda two up but Thiago Augusto Fernandes made sure of the points in the 58th. On Friday, Police downed FA Cup winners LionsXII 2-1 in Shah Alam with Dramane Traore scoring twice to take his tally to a league-leading 13 goals.
– http://www.nst.com.my
