KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 — Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) football club owner, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim believes Kedah and JDT have an equal chance to be the 2019 Malaysia Cup champions ahead of the final at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil, this Saturday.
Tunku Ismail noted that there is very little separating the two teams and anything is possible in a high-intensity match, especially in the final.
“It’s a 50-50 football final. Anything can happen. I wish both teams the best,” said Tunku Ismail when met by reporters during his visit to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) headquarters in Bukit Jalil, here today.
The last time the two teams met in the final of the prestigious competition was in 2017 which saw JDT beating Kedah 2-0 and ending their 32-year Malaysia Cup drought.
JDT who are the four-time Charity Shield (Piala Sumbangsih) champions and six consecutive Super League champions, would be eyeing their second Malaysia Cup title in three years after reaching the final by defeating Selangor 5-1 in aggregate in the semifinals.
Kedah, who were crowned FA Cup champions this season, went through a tough path before edging Pahang 8-8 in aggregate to enter the final.
Meanwhile, Tunku Ismail did not rule out the possibility JDT would emerge as the AFC Champions League (ACL) champions in the near future but noted that the Southern Tigers squad’s journey is still a distance away.
However, he said the opportunity to compete in the tournament at the moment gave useful exposure to his players.
“Our project (JDT) is a few years old compared to other Asian giants who have long played in this prestigious competition...but we have development programmes, winning the ACL maybe quite impossible now but in football, anything can happen.
“I do not focus on that. I would rather prefer that JDT are playing in the ACL because of the useful exposure at the quality tournament for local JDT players,” he said. — Bernama
