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Sports

Wednesday September 30, 2009

Football: Red Giants on track

By ERIC SAMUEL

PETALING JAYA: Fancied Selangor are well on course to the knockout stage of the Malaysia Cup football competition when they picked up their second straight win, defeating Police 3-0 in a Group D match at the Shah Alam Stadium last night.

While the Red Giants stamped their class, defending champions Kedah suffered a huge blow to their quarter-final hopes when they were beaten 0-1 by Kelantan in a Group E match at the Sultan Mohd IV Stadium in Kota Baru.

Kedah in their opening match last Saturday drew 1-1 with Premier League side Armed Forces.

It was the second straight win too for Kelantan, now under the charge of former national coach B. Sathianathan. In the match that drew a sellout crowd of 20,000 spectators, Indra Putra Mahayuddin scored the winning goal in the 49th minute.

Stay away: Kelantan’s Khalid Jamlus (centre) tries to shield the ball from Kedah’s Victor Andrag (right) during their Malaysia Cup match in Kota Baru last night. Kelantan won 1-0.

The other fancied sides also kept up the pace in their respective groups with Perlis (Group A), Terengganu, Negri Sembilan (Group B) and Johor FC (Group C) all getting on the driver’s seat to qualify for the quarter-finals.

The biggest winners last night were Negri, who thrashed lowly Sarawak 8-0 at the Tuanku Abdul Rahman Stadium in Paroi.

At the Shah Alam Stadium, Amirulhadi Zainal opened accounts for Selangor in the 18th minute before national striker Mohd Safee Sali stretched the lead in the 39th minute.

Another national striker, Mohd Amri Yahyah, scored a late goal in the 89th minute.

Selangor, who edged Premier League side Sabah 1-0 at the Tawau Stadium in their opening match, are seeking to win an unprecedented quadruple of titles this season after having claimed the Charity Shield, FA Cup and the Super League crown.

In Paroi, Negri Sembilan went on rampage against Sarawak with national striker Mohd Zaquan Adha Abdul Razak starring with a hat-trick (57th, 59th, 64th). Idris Karim got his name on the score sheet twice (57th, 82nd) and the other goals were scored by S. Kunalan (27th), Mohd Shukor Adan (50th) and Halim Zainal (72nd).

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