preview: JDT V ATM

Johor Darul Ta'zim's hopes of finishing top of the table in the regular season is over; Selangor's lead is now unassailable, and nothing JDT do from here can catch them. What is still live, and what makes this fixture matter a great deal more than a routine mid-table afternoon might suggest, is the battle for second place itself. Under the play-off format, only the top two sides go straight through to the semi-finals, everyone else from third to sixth having to negotiate the play-off round first. For JDT, second is no longer a consolation, it is the whole remaining point of the season.

The margin for error is thinner than it has been all year. Pahang Rangers kick off their own Circuit 8 fixture against PFA Odin Sarawak earlier in the day, and a Pahang win would be enough to move them above JDT before a ball is even kicked in this match, on games played and goal difference. JDT could therefore find themselves needing something from this game simply to get back to where they started the day, regardless of how convincingly they play.

There is a further layer to the fixture worth watching closely. When these two sides met in Circuit 1, JDT won 8-3, a result that came long before the mid-season transfer window reshaped both squads. Muhammad Bukhari Samsudin, ATM's leading scorer for much of the campaign, completed his move to JDT shortly afterwards, while national team player Danial Dain went the other way to ATM on loan as part of the same deal. Sunday's meeting is likely to be the first time either player faces his old club, a genuine subplot regardless of what the table says either side needs from the result.

For ATM themselves, sixth place and a play-off spot of their own remain live, with Terengganu and USM both still capable of applying pressure from below. A result against JDT, even an unlikely one, would do far more than dent JDT's hopes of a top-two finish; it would represent exactly the kind of statement result ATM have lacked against the division's strongest sides all season, home or away.

Whatever happens earlier in the day between Pahang and PFA Odin Sarawak, JDT know the equation by kick-off: win, and second place, along with a direct route to the semi-finals, is theirs to control regardless of what Pahang have done. Anything less, and the calculation becomes considerably more complicated heading into the season's final circuit.