T-Team Terengganu are not intimidated by the prospect of facing 32-time champions Selangor in their opening Malaysia Cup Group D match at the Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah Stadium in Kuala Terengganu tomorrow.
The Terengganu club side have, after all, beaten the Red Giants in both their meetings in the Super League this season – winning 2-0 at the Shah Alam Stadium in April and 2-1 on home ground a month later.
And T-Team are hoping to make it a hat-trick of wins over the Klang Valley giants tomorrow.
“The Malaysia Cup may be a different ball game compared to the Super League ... but my players are all in the right spirit and are determined to show that their wins over Selangor were not a fluke. I am confident they can make it happen for a third time,” said T-Team coach Yunus Alif in a telephone interview from Kuala Terengganu yesterday.
“But my confidence is also based on what I have seen of my players during our preparations. Despite the fasting month, my boys did not slacken the pace during training. Their attitude and character were top class.”
The other two teams drawn in Group D with T-Team and Selangor are Kuala Lumpur and Premier League side Police.
Yunus also believes that his players are bent on making up for missing the knockout stage when they made their Malaysia Cup debut last season, finishing third in their four-team group.
But it will still be quite a tricky task as T-Team will not have the services of first choice goalkeeper Mohd Syamsuri Mustafa, who is still recovering from a knee injury.
The only consolation for Yunus is that Mohd Zairi Hafiezi and the on-loan Mohd Jibrail Kamaron of Pos Malaysia are reliable replacements.
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