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Saturday October 3, 2009

Kedah’s Malaysia Cup quarter-final hopes still alive

By LOGANATH VELLOO

GEORGE TOWN: Despite a disastrous start to the defence of their Malaysia Cup title, Kedah are not about to throw in the towel yet.

A 1-1 draw at home against Armed Forces and a 0-1 away defeat to Kelantan have left the 2007 and 2008 treble champions staring at an ignominious exit in the group stage.

After two matches, the Canaries are at the bottom of the Group E standings. The defending champions already trail group leaders Kelantan by five points.

Coach Mohd Azraai Khor understands the gargantuan task ahead if Kedah are to dislodge the Red Warriors from the top.

So, he has now shifted his sight to qualifying for the quarter-finals as one of the best three second-placed teams in the competition.

“We only have one point to show from the first two matches despite holding our own in both games.

“Kelantan have opened up a sizable gap in the standings and will be favourites to become group champions. But the good news for Kedah is that the other two teams (Armed Forces and Penang) drew on Tuesday and we can still overtake them to try and sneak into the last eight,” said Azraai.

Only the five group champions and the best three runners-up will qualify for the last eight.

But with several teams in the other groups in free-scoring form, Azraai knows that his forwards need to pile up the goals, beginning with tonight’s tie against Penang in Alor Setar, to improve their goal average.

Kedah only have Faizal Abu Bakar’s goal in the opening match to show for after 180 minutes of action.

Mohd Khyril Muhymeen, Fadly Baharum, Samransak Kram and V.Thirumurugan are all out injured. In their absence, the goalscoring duties rest on the likes of Badrol Bakhtiar, Sabre Abu and Azrul Ahmad, who have all struggled to cope with the responsibility.

Penang are also seaching for their first win in Group E after losing 1-2 to Kelantan and drawing 1-1 with Armed Forces.

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