KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 ― Kelantan coach Azraai Khor Abdullah says nationalism spirit will be burning strong when his side takes on LionsXII in a blockbuster FA Cup final at the National Stadium today.
“We want the Cup to stay in Malaysia and we are representing all teams in the M-League against them. We urge everyone to get behind us as we make a return to the FA Cup final,” he said yesterday.
Azraai has won nine titles in his decorated career and has a stellar record when it comes to finals. He was on the losing side once with Kedah in 2004, when his charges fell to Perlis in the Malaysia Cup.
The man who took Kedah to a double treble-winning run will, however, put that record aside as his team looks to secure its third Cup title in four years.
“This is a chance for us to win a title. We had a tough road in this competition but the players did well. I hope they can go on to win it.”
His counterpart Fandi Ahmad was in a jovial mood ahead of the crunch tie and promised a surprise.
“We are proud to make it this far and this is history for our development squad. The best form of attack is defence and we will be doing something new. It won’t be an easy game. Kelantan has big game experience but we will give everything we’ve got,” he said.
"Kelantan beat us 2-0 in the league and we conceded both goals through setpieces, so we will be wary of their threat from dead ball situations."
The FA of Malaysia chairman of local competitions committee Datuk Afandi Hamzah confirmed 80,000 tickets have been sold and added security has been beefed up.
“There will be more than 2,000 security personnel monitoring the crowd. We will also have three tiers of security, including ultra-violet scanners to detect fake tickets.”
