# Red Giants roll out their experience at Shah Alam Stadium
# T-Team’s away goal gives them confidence
# Hazwan Bakri’s stunning equalizer leads Selangor’s fightback
By Rizal Abdullah
Selangor are not about to give up their disastrous M-League campaign this year and the Red Giants are determined to salvage some pride and be winners of the last silverware that is still within their grasp – the prestigious Malaysia Cup.
The 33-time Malaysia Cup winners want to retain the most sought after silverware in Malaysian football. Selangor won their 33rd Malaysia Cup last year with a 2-0 win over Kedah in the final with Hazwan Bakri netting both the goals.
And it was Hazwan’s stunning first-half injury time equalizer – a curling left footer from outside the penalty box that sent that the T-Team dancing – gave Selangor the boost and confidence, especially in the second half.
Until then Selangor were doing everything on the field but they were not going any where. Hazwan’s goal breathed life into Selangor.
It was not a packed stadium on Saturday night but the 2-1 win over surprise semi-finalists T-Team in the first-leg in their own den – the Shah Alam Stadium – has given Selangor a slight edge for the Oct 15 return-leg in Kuala Terengganu.
With 10 minutes of regulation time left Selangor struck the winner. It came from Nigerian defender Ugo Ukah’s boot when he rifled the ball into the T-Team net after picking up a loose ball inside the box following a corner.
While Selangor celebrated the winner stand-in coach K. Gunalan, a former international who took over the hot seat after Zainal Abidin Hassan was removed following a spate of bad results, there is another half of the battle to be won in Kuala Terengganu.
MALAYSIA CUP SEMI-FINAL
(First-leg)
Selangor 2 T-Team 1
