KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 — The prestigious Malaysia Cup football competition is drawing to a climax as East Coast teams Kelantan and Pahang meet in the final at Shah Alam Stadium tomorrow night.

The path of defending champions Kelantan to the final was not as easy as expected as it had to face stiff oppositions from two choice teams, namely Johor Darul Takzim (Johor DT) and Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM).

Kelantan which emerged champions of Group C beat Johor DT with an aggregate of 8-5 in the quarter finals before overwhelming ATM through an aggregate decision of 4-3 in the semi-finals.

This was different with the Pahang squad which emerged as runner up of Group C where they recorded an aggregate win of 5-3 over Selangor PKNS FC in the quarter finals before beating Sarawak with an aggregate of 4-2 in the semi-final.

Many local football observers including former players see Kelantan, which are gunning its third championship after 2010 and 2012, as champions of the 87th edition compared to Pahang based on the strength they possess in every position.

They nevertheless, regarded Pahang as also having a chance to win the Malaysia Cup for the third time after 1983 and 1992 if they can capitalise on the absence of Kelantan’s stout defender Obinna Nwaneri who is suspended.

Both the teams had met in the Malaysia Cup Group C competition which saw a 1-1 draw in Kuantan on Aug 20 before Kelantan won big 4-0 at the reciprocal match in Kota Baharu on Sept 21.

Former national player (early 2000), Mohd Nizam Jamil said Kelantan have advantage by having the best reserve squad should the main squad fail to give its best performance.

“Although Kelantan lost Obinna’s service, it is still capable of being a threat to the Pahang defence through skipper Mohd Badhri Mohd Radzi, Norfarhan Muhammad and Indra Putra Mahayuddin,” he said.

Mohd Nizam who is now Premier League’s SPA Putrajaya FC team manager, however, regarded Pahang as having the chance of emerging champions if the results at the quarter and semi-finals are the yardstick.

“Furthermore, Pahang should fully exploit their two wingers R. Gopinathan and R. Surendran to destabilise Kelantan’s defence if they want to become champions,” said Mohd Nizam who picked Kelantan as the potential winner with a 2-1 win over Pahang.

Sharing his view is sport blogger, Muhammad Aiman Aminul Abdullah who picked Kelantan as favourites based on the balanced strength in every position of the team coached by Bojan Hodak.

“They have a broad experience of performing in the finals other than capable of performing in front of a big crowd of supporters,” said Muhammad Aiman who expects Kelantan to win 3-1.

“In fact, their advance to the final was not an easy one because they had to face stiff competition from Johor DT and ATM,” said the writer of the blog www.suarasukan1mas.blogspot.com.

Muhammad Aiman Aminul who is a local football critic said Obinna’s absence in defence would not affect the rhythm of the Kelantan team which have several players to carry out the task such as Azizi Mat Rose, Mohd Farisham Ismail and Nik Shahrul Azim Abd Halim. — Bernama