THE SEA Games-bound duo of Faris Ramli and Sahil Suhaimi led the LionsXII to a stunning Malaysian FA Cup triumph in front of 85.000 fans at the Bukit Jalil Stadium on Saturday evening.
Substitute Sahil's 81st-minute strike and stoppage-time penalty, coming after Faris' sixth-minute opener, gave the Singapore outfit a hard-fought 3-1 win over Kelantan, who dominated for large parts of the final.
Fandi Ahmad's troops defended valiantly to repel Kelantan's incessant attacks. Goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud was in top form, twice denying Colombian striker Erwin Carrillo with his feet.
Kelantan, winners of the domestic Treble in 2012, paid the price for a sloppy start, when right-back Nik Shahrul Azim failed to track Faris' diagonal run. That was all the SEA Games-bound winger needed, latching onto Izzdin Shafiq's defence-splitting pass to round the goalkeeper and slot into an empty net.
Kelantan levelled the score just past the hour mark. Forward Wan Zack Haikal slotted pass a flailing Izwan to cap off a sleek passing move.
But it was the Sahil show thereafter. For his first goal, the nippy forward stole the ball from the centre circle, blitzed past two opponents, and slammed home into the bottom corner.
After being felled in the penalty box in injury time, the 22-year-old got up to slot in the penalty and spark wild celebrations from the LionsXII bench and 6,000 travelling fans.
- ST