A delighted Aidil Sharin praised the performances of his players as they played almost to perfection to inch closer to the coveted ACL group spot.
Only one match stands between Kedah and a place in the 2020 AFC Champions League group stage but it is a big match because of the nature of the opponents. Kedah hammered Wofoo Tai Po 5-1 in yesterday’s playoff in Alor Setar to set up a massive tie against South Korean side, FC Seoul.
While Kedah met the expectations in beating the Hong Kong side, the manner in which they did so was nothing short of astounding. Tchetche Kipre opened the scoring early on with a stunning volley from long range and that set the tone for the rest of the match.
The Ivorian went on to score another two with team mate Hadin Azman chipping in with two goals of his own to seal a comprehensive with for The Red Eagles. Understandably Aidil was extremely pleased with what he saw but at the same time wary that the same performance may not have the same outcome against the far better Seoul side.
“We got what we wanted. Against a difficult opponent, we got a good result in front of our own fans who filled Darul Aman Stadium. Everything that we planned worked well and I’m happy with the performance shown by the players in the match.
“Even though we could not field a few key players in the match but what we worked on during pre-season and the new combinations bore fruit. We have to stay focus for the next match as FC Seoul are a really strong team and we must be aware of that.
“We will have to go through a long journey and the weather there will be challenging as well as last I checked it will be negative two degrees. We must work harder to get a good result because there’s no easy path into the ACL. For now, I want the players to enjoy this win then we focus for the game in Korea,” said Aidil after the match.
Kedah will take on FC Seoul at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on 28 January with a place in Group E on offer, that also features Beijing FC, Chiangrai United and one from Kashima Antlers or Melbourne Victory.
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