Tough Group for The Turtles

The draw for the 2012 Malaysia Cup competition was held this evening and there were a few gasps by the end of it, especially when Super League champions, Kelantan and Premier League champions, The Malaysian Armed Forces were grouped together in Group B.

To make it even more interesting, last season's runners-up, Terengganu were also drawn into the same group together with their bogey team, Kedah who found themselves relegated to the Premier League after losing the play-off final against Pahang recently.

The Turtles will open their campaign with a home fixture against Kelantan on 22 August, just three days after Aidil-Fitri. The East-Coast derby will promise to be a heated affair, especially with the match being the first one of the campaign.

The Stags are unbeaten against Terengganu this season, will be seen as having the upper hand over their neighbour after dumping them out of the AFC Cup in a hard fought 3-2 victory in Kota Bharu. The latest meeting between the two was the 2-2 draw at the end of the league campaign.

Then The Turtles will be on the road for the next two matches as they visit the Premier League champions, The Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) in the Klang Valley on 25 August before travelling to the north to play their bogey team, Kedah in Alor Setar on 28 August.

Then it will be the reverse fixture with the final match against Kelantan in Kota Bharu on 14 September could be a potential decider on who will progress to the knock-out stage.

Another Terengganu team, PBDKT T-Team were drawn into Group D with 32 time winners, Selangor together with Sarawak and Pahang as companies. T-Team will play their first match at the newly refurbished Darul Makmur Stadium against Pahang.

Then they will play their next two fixtures at home against Sarawak and Selangor before Yunus Alif's men travel to Shah Alam and Kuching to play the reverse fixture before concluding their group programme at home against Pahang in Kuala Terengganu.

The rest of the draw saw Group A having a southern flavour to it with Super League runners-up Lions XII were drawn with two Johor teams. Johor football fans will have their first competitive derby with Johor FC will play against the state team, Johor in the second and fifth fixture of the group.

Another team in the group is the draw specialist, PKNS FC.

Group C saw defending champions, Negeri Sembilan will see Perak and two club sides, Felda United and Sime Darby FC as obstacles in their quest to defend their title this season.


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