Tampines Rovers moved to the pinnacle of Group E in the AFC Cup after a hard-fought 1-0 win over Selangor at the MP Selayang Stadium earlier today.
Selangor fans within the stadium will tell you the defeat was a product of their team’s own lacklustre performance but truth be told, there were several other factors as well – including the astounding performance of Tampines’ skipper, Mustafic Fahrudin.
The experienced center-back was tasked with keeping an eye on Selangor’s gigantic forward Patrick Ronaldinho, and he did more than just excel, by completely nullifying the threat posed by the Liberian forward.
Sitting at the heart of a three-man defence, Mustafic was in complete control for the entire 90 minutes, orchestrating his partners – Afiq Yunos and Kwon Jun – in maintaining a strong defensive line to prevent Selangor from breaking through.
That’s exactly what happened, with the Red Giants exhausting every creative ounce in their side, in their pursuit of dismantling Tampines’ Mustafic-led defence. At the end of 90 minutes, they were unable to do so and Fazrul Nawaz’s solitary strike was more than enough to hand V. Sundramoorthy’s side a morale-boosting away win.
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