The Southern Tigers are too fierce

DBasia.news – The Malaysia Cup will start this Saturday with 16 teams scrambling to chase their own history on the prestigious stage.

After finishing Monday’s draw, each team can look forward to their fate this time.

Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT), which is quite consistent this season, is well-positioned to defend the championship thus completing a double title after keeping the Super League trophy for the fifth time in a row.

Voted with the Kedah 2016 champions who are struggling with their performance, Kelantan are relegated to the Premier League and MIFA in Group C can be seen as an easy route for Raul Longhi’s men to step into the second round.

However, the opponents may be able to take advantage of JDT in the absence of six players including Safawi Rasid’s second-highest goaler that’s with the under 23-year-old squad (B-23) to the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games.

Among the teams that were able to challenge JDT was Pahang who beat the Southern Tigers club in the FA Cup quarter-finals in their way of winning the championship over Selangor 2-0 in the final on July 7.

Dollah Salleh’s squad looks set to take on the fifth title since 2014 when he was ready to face the controversy of releasing the two main pillars of the team, Matthew Davies and Nor Azam Azih to join the B-23 squad.

But before dreaming of a move further, the Tok Gajah squad must first pass the 33-man championship of Selangor who will return to the Shah Alam Stadium, PKNP and Sabah in the Group D.

Perhaps it can be said from four groups, Group A rivals are more fierce.

Silver who got lucky to finish the Super League campaign in second place, will meet two more Super League teams who can make a surprise over the bigger teams of Terengganu and Kuala Lumpur as well as FELCRA who are second in the Premier League.

Perak would have expected the touch of Mehmet Durakovic’s driver who had been synonymous with the success of the Malaysia Cup as Selangor’s former coach and coach.

Group B rivalry is also difficult to predict when PKNS FC beat Perak 4-1 in last league action to take third place against Melaka United, FELDA United Premier League champion and PDRM.

Melaka has shown a resurgence in recent times when it has not lost in the last five league matches while Sathianathan, who is now guiding FELDA, is keen to regain the 2010 success with Kelantan in the Malaysian Cup.

Saturday

Perak VS FELCRA FC

(Perak Stadium , Ipoh, 9pm)

Kuala Lumpur VS Terengganu

(Bolasepak Kuala Lumpur Stadium , Cheras, 9pm)

Pahang VS Sabah

(Darul Makmur Stadium , 9pm)

Selangor VS PKNP FC

(Shah Alam Stadium , 9pm)

Sunday

PDRM VS PKNS FC

(Hang Jebat Stadium, 9pm)

FELDA United VS Melaka United

(Tun Abd Razak Stadium , Jengka, 9pm)

JDT VS MIFA

(Tan Sri Hassan Yunos Stadium , Larkin, 9pm)

Kedah VS Kelantan

(Darul Aman Stadium, 9pm)