* Selangor’s misery continues
* 10-man Red Warriors defeat Armed Forces 2-0
* Sarawak snatch a point against Felda with dramatic late equaliser
* Mali international Dramane Traore of Police scores first hattrick in 2015 M-League
Newly promoted Police found out the hard way that life in the elite Super League will be a tough journey when they fell to a 5-3 defeat at the hands of Lions XII at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore on Saturday night.
Fandi Ahmad’s team looked like running riot against the Malaysian outfit after taking a commanding 5-0 lead by the 67th minute before Police hit back with a hattrick by Dramane Traore – the first in this year’s M-League. The Olympian from Mali scored in the 69th, 80th and his last came deep into five minutes of added time.
The homesters never looked back after Gabrriel Quek opened scoring on 21 minutes. When Faris Ramli made it 2-0 in injury time before the break the floodgates opened. Three minutes into the second half Shafiq Izzdin made it 3-0 before Hafiz Abu Sujak (56th) and Sahil Suhaimi (67th) completed the scoring.
“This is a good start to our campaign. We created the opportunities and scored…we could have added another one or two,” said a happy Lions XII coach Fandi after the match.
Police coach Fauzi Pilus was a disappointed man with the result and the big scoreline surprised him. “Our defence was a big let down and this allowed our opponents to score freely,” said Fauzi.
At the Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah Stadium in Kuala Terengganu, the Turtles scored a goal in each half to run out 2-0 winners Selangor as the Red Giants suffered another setback after finishing empty handed last season.
Ismail Faruqi sent the home fans wild when he fired a rising volley into the roof of the Selangor after goalkeeper Norazlan Razali could only punch the ball into his path following a corner taken by Gustavo Lopez.
The hardworking Lopez made it 2-0 on 73 minutes when he executed a curling right footed freekick past the Selangor wall on a night when Terengganu’s Brazilian hitman Paulo Rangel was the focus after switching camps. Winner of the Golden Boot Award last season with 16 goals when playing for Selangor, Rangel had a fallout with the Selangor management over his contract and moved to Terengganu for the 2015 season.
It was a disappointing start for Armed Forces who fell 2-0 to 2012 treble winners Kelantan at the Tuanku Abdul Rahman Stadium in Paroi – their home venue this season. Kelantan, who played with 10 players for a major part of the second half when Brendan Gan was stretchered out with a knee injury, had already made three changes when the incident happened.
The Red Warriors scored through Noor Hazrul Mustafa from a freekick after 13 minutes before Erwin Corilla scored a gem of a goal in the 62nd minute against a luckless Armed Forces who had their fair share of chances but poor finishing denied them.
Perak coach Datuk M. Karathu made a winning start with a 2-0 defeat of Sime Darby who were reduced to 10-man after 58 minutes when skipper Ivan Dragicevic was sent for an early shower. Nurridzuan Abu Hassan (29th) and South Korean Namkung Woong, signed from Kedah this season got the second in the 86th minute.
In a thriller at the Selayang Stadium, Sarawak were all smiles after snatching a valuable point from the jaws of defeat seconds before the final whistle for a 3-3 draw against Felda United. Shahrol Saperi shattered Felda’s hopes with Sarawak’s third goals which came deep into five minutes of injury time.
Sarawak scored first after 12 minutes through Billy Memmet before Felda hit back through Bojan Milandinovic (40th) and Ndumba Makeche (47th. It was 2-2 when Hairol Mokhtar found the net for the Crocs. Edward Junior Wilson scored the third for Felda and looked set for full points until Shahrol struck.
SUPER LEAGUE RESULTS (FEB 7)
TERENGGANU 2 SELANGOR 0
PERAK 2 SIME DARBY 0
LIONS XII 5 POLICE 3
A.FORCES 0 KELANTAN 2
FELDA UNITED 3 SARAWAK 3
