Selangor FC coach Kim Pan-gon believes a packed MBPJ Stadium and the Red Giants’ formidable home record could prove decisive as the Malaysian side prepare to face Thailand’s Buriram United in the first leg of the ASEAN Club Championship Shopee Cup™ final.
PETALING JAYA, May 6: Selangor FC coach Kim Pan-gon is confident his side can capitalise on their impressive home form when they host Buriram United FC in the first leg of the 2025/26 ASEAN Club Championship Shopee Cup™ final on Wednesday.
The Malaysian club have won all three of their home matches at MBPJ Stadium in the competition this season, and Kim believes the atmosphere generated by Selangor’s supporters could provide a crucial edge before next week’s return leg in Thailand.
“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.”
Kim, however, remains wary of the challenge posed by the Thai giants, who reached the quarterfinals of the AFC Champions League Elite this season.
“We must respect Buriram as a representative of Southeast Asia who have gone to the AFC Champions League Elite’s last eight,” he said.
“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.”
Selangor could benefit from the absence of influential Buriram duo Guilherme Bissoli and Goran Čaušić, both suspended following red cards during the semifinal victory over Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) last week.
Bissoli, the competition’s joint-top scorer with seven goals, will miss the first leg, while Čaušić is suspended for both matches after being sent off for violent conduct.
Despite that, Kim insisted his focus remains firmly on Selangor’s own strengths rather than Buriram’s missing players.
“These two players are very important players for them but I believe the other players are very strong,” he said.
“We play always as a team, we fully explore our potential. That is more important than caring about the other team.”
Kim added that Selangor’s approach will once again revolve around maximising the qualities of their attacking players while exploiting weaknesses in the opposition setup.
“As always we try to analyse our opponents to find out the weak points, to attack the weak points,” he said.
“The important thing is ourselves, we have a clear game plan and we try to explore how to maximise our players’ potential.”
Since taking charge in January, the South Korean tactician has transformed Selangor’s fortunes, winning 15 of his 21 matches in charge while suffering just one defeat.
Now, Kim is targeting Selangor’s first major trophy since 2015 and hopes victory in the regional competition can also boost Malaysian football’s standing in Southeast Asia.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
