Perak and Terengganu in semis

PERAK and Terengganu cruised into the semi-finals of the National Under-14 tournament with one match in hand each at the Kuala Lumpur HA Stadium yesterday.
Perak, in Group B, brushed aside Pahang 4-0 while Group A favourites Terengganu subdued a fighting Kuala Lumpur 3-1 yesterday.
Perak have 15 points after five matches, and no challengers to topple them from the top. While Terengganu have 12 points and top the Group A table.
Both the teams have one match in hand, with Perak playing Kedah, and Terengganu playing Johor to complete their Group fixtures.
Terengganu held off brilliantly an early onslaught from KL, before their slkipper Luqman Nul Haqim scored in the 31st and 49th minutes, while the third was scored by Khairul Helmy.
The late KL fightback only resulted in Shahfirul Aqmal finding the target in the 62nd minute, but it was too late an effort.
As for Perak, their four goals were scored by Fuad Zaquan (first), Johari Sani (63rd, 69th), HAfis Khodori (66th).
"To be frank, I have yet to watch Terengganu play as we were concentrating more on Kuala Lumpur as our main challengers in this tournament," said Perak team manager Zakaria Yaacob.
Terengganu have a secret weapon in pint-sized 13-year-old striker Wan Mohamed Azlan, who barely stands above his hockey stick.
"His strength is to find an opening and make a pass, which normally results in a goal or a penalty corner for us.
"He is an intelligent player, and against KL, he won the penalty corner which gave us the first goal to kill off KL's fight early," said Terengganu team manager Nik Mohamed Azuan.
RESULTS: Group A -- Malacca 7 Perlis 0, Terengganu 3 Kuala Lumpur 1, Negri Sembilan 2 Johor 1; Group B: Kelantan 2 Selangor 2, Pahang 0 Perak 4, Penang 7 Sabah 0.
TODAY: Group B -- Kedah v Perak (3.30pm), Kelantan v Sabah (5.30pm), Pahang v Penang (7.30pm).


GROUP A

STANDINGS

P W D L F A Pts
TERENGGANU 4 4 0 0 25 4 12
K LUMPUR 4 2 1 1 18 4 7
JOHOR 4 2 1 1 8 6 7
N. SEMBILAN 4 2 0 2 7 9 6
MALACCA 4 1 0 3 11 15 3
PERLIS 4 0 0 4 2 33 0

GROUP B
P W D L F A Pts
PERAK 5 5 0 0 20 4 15
SELANGOR 5 2 2 1 14 12 8
KELANTAN 4 2 1 1 9 8 7
PAHANG 4 2 0 2 8 10 6
PENANG 4 1 1 2 12 7 4
SABAH 4 1 0 3 2 14 3
KEDAH 4 0 0 4 3 13 0