Kim Pan-gon will lead his Selangor FC side into the first leg of the 2025/26 Asean Club Championship Shopee Cup final against Buriram United FC on Wednesday confident their strong home record can give the Malaysian outfit an advantage to take into the second leg.
Selangor will host the opening clash of the two-legged decider having won all three matches played at MBPJ Stadium in the competition this season, and that record has given the former Ulsan HD FC coach belief his team can prevail against the title holders.
“We are very strong at home always, so we want to use all the advantage of a home game especially (because) our ultras, the Red Giants, will come to make it a full house tomorrow,” said Kim. “We have very strong supporters who cheer us and it will be a great atmosphere.
“We must respect Buriram as a representative of Southeast Asia who have gone to the AFC Champions League Elite’s last eight. They’re a very respectable club.
“We can see that all of the players are very strong individually and as a team, so we will fully respect them. We will attack them to win tomorrow.”
With no major injury concerns within his own squad, Kim will hope to take advantage of the absence of influential Buriram United duo Guilherme Bissoli and Goran Čaušić, who were both sent off in the second leg of their semi-final win over Johor Darul Ta’zim FC last week.
Bissoli, the tournament’s joint-top scorer with seven goals, will be suspended for Wednesday’s clash while Čaušić will play no part in either leg of the final after receiving a straight red card for violent conduct.
“These two players are very important players for them but I believe the other players are very strong. I saw a lot of good players there, so we are not focused on this fact,” said Kim.
“We play always as a team, we fully explore our potential. That is more important than caring about the other team.
“As always we try to analyse our opponents to find out the weak points, to attack the weak points. The important thing is ourselves, we have a clear game plan and we try to explore how to maximise our players’ potential.
“We have very good players, we have very good attacking players, very solid player as well. Hopefully we can make it like the last semi-final (when Selangor won 2-1 against Nam Dinh FC at home). Then hopefully we can take an advantage into the away game.”
Since his arrival in January, Kim has overseen a marked upturn in Selangor’s fortunes, winning 15 of his 21 matches in charge and losing just once. Now the 57-year-old has set his sights on ending a trophy drought that extends back more than a decade.
While Selangor have won a record 33 Malaysia Cup titles, the club’s most recent trophy winning success came back in 2015.
“It should be great if we were to get to be champion, not only glory for Selangor but also glory for the Malaysian nation because in Southeast Asia we are always the underdog,” said Kim.
“But we have got into the final and we must be very proud. We must give some pride to the people, that we can attack them, we try to dominate and show them how strong Malaysia is.”
