Preview: Pahang v JDT, Semi Final 1st Leg
The semi-finals get underway this weekend with Pahang Rangers taking on the last two seasons' winners JDT.
The MPFL 2026 play-offs move into the semi-final stage this weekend, and the format itself adds a layer of jeopardy rarely seen in Malaysian futsal. Under this season's rules, a side must win both legs of the tie to reach the final outright; if Pahang Rangers take the first leg and JDT respond by winning the second, aggregate scores count for nothing and the tie goes straight to extra time and penalties in the second match. A comfortable first-leg win, in other words, settles considerably less than it would in a conventional two-legged format, and both sides know it.
Pahang arrive on the back of the most emphatic result of the entire play-off round, a 9-2 demolition of ATM in Kuantan built on contributions right across the team sheet, Felipe De Souza and Rodrigo Da Silva among the scorers in a strike partnership that has carried Pahang's season from the opening circuit onward. JDT, meanwhile, come into the semi-finals having finished the regular season exactly where the campaign's only real drama for them was concentrated, a distant second to an unbeaten Selangor, their sole two defeats of the season both coming at the champions' hands.
The two sides' meetings this year offer little to separate them. Their first encounter, back in Circuit 1, finished 3-3, while JDT won the return fixture 5-4 in Circuit 7 in a result that ultimately decided which of the two finished the regular season closer to Selangor. Pahang, though, have history worth remembering here beyond this season alone: their run to last year's Malaysia Futsal Cup final included an 11-9 aggregate upset of JDT, then the reigning champions, in the semi-finals, a result built on an 8-4 second-leg performance that remains one of the more significant results in Pahang's recent history.
For JDT, the personnel have shifted since that meeting a year ago. Bruno Taffy, Andresito and Mahadir Harahap remain the core of an attack that has scored freely against almost everyone this season, now supplemented by Muhammad Bukhairi, whose mid-season move from ATM adds a further attacking option to an already well-stocked front line. Whether that additional firepower is enough to see off a Pahang side already playing with genuine momentum, and with a recent history of springing exactly this kind of upset against JDT, is the question the first leg exists to begin answering.
The winner of this semi-final tie will face either Selangor or Terengganu in the final.
