Selangor earned their second win over Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi in the group stage of the AFC Cup after a disappointing 2-1 victory at the Selayang Stadium earlier tonight.
The Red Giants head coach Zainal Abidin Hassan was without Mauro Olivi after the Football Association of Selangor (FAS) banned the Argentinian striker for brawling with Hafiz Kamal after the loss to FELDA United last week. The Yellow Fear head coach Shafiqul Islam Manik went into the fourth group match of the AFC Cup with only 14 players after a number of players suffered major injuries and a few of them left the team last week.
Sheikh Jamal started the tie with Wedson Anselme having the first shot of the game, which was comfortably saved by Khairul Azlan, who replaced Norazlan Razali in Selangor’s goal.
R. Gopinathan then livened things up for the home side on the 3rd minute after his shot from outside the box was scuffed. The ex-Pahang midfielder then saw his left-footed attempt went wide off Shahidul Sohel’s goal on the 9th minute.
Zainal Abidin’s men drew first blood when Andik Vermansyah set up Ahmad Hazwan Bakri on the 15th minute. The Indonesian winger, who was deployed behind Patrick Ronaldinho Wleh tonight, was strong to hold off the Bangladeshi defender before finding Hazwan Bakri to score the first goal of the night, which drove the home fans into a state of pure bliss.
The tempo off the game slowed down before Adam Nor, who was brought on as a replacement for R. Gopinathan, blazed his attempt wide on the 31st minute. Liberian forward Patrick Ronaldinho then continued to pile the pressure on the Bangladeshi side but unfortunately missed his one-on-one effort against Shahidul Sohel a few minutes later.
Sheikh Jamal silenced the home crowd after Landing Tarboe equalized on the 35th minute due to a miscommunication between Shahrom Kalam and Robert Cornthwaite.
The second kicked off and the home side instantly applied pressure on the away side. Andik Vermansyah brilliantly dribbled two players before blasting his shot a few inches wide.
However, things turned sour for Zainal Abidin Hassan’s men on the 60th minute when Hafiz Kamal was sent off for blatantly elbowing a Sheikh Jamal player in the face. The ex-Pahang player was in distraught as he took a couple of minutes to exit the Selayang field.
Hazwan Bakri almost regained the lead for Selangor when his shot was comfortably saved by Shahidul Sohel, before Wedson Anselme’s attempt flew wide at the other end of the field.
The tables turned when Yeasin Khan was given a second yellow for his tackle on Andik.
Patrick Ronaldinho Wleh scored late in the game to earn all three points for the home team. That was before Andik Vermansyah striked a brilliant effort which hit the post and it bounced back to Azrif Nasrulhaq, who then tried his luck as well by shooting the ball wide.
The referee blew the full-time whistle to indicate a disappointing win for Selangor.
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