Group A
Terengganu is the seeded team here and they will have the FA Cup winners, Lions XII in the group as well as Premier League champions, Kedah. The team formerly known as Johor FA, JDT II complete the line-up.
The east coast side has met the Lions four times this season with two home victories registered over Fandi Ahmad boys and The Turtles snatching a point in the league at Jalan Besar.
The Lions XII only win over Terengganu was in the first leg of the FA Cup when they won 2-1. An extra motivating factor Ahmad Yusof boys is the fact that it was the Lions XII who knocked them out of the FA Cup on away goals' rule.
The Lions did make a trip to Kedah en route to their FA Cup victory with a 4-0 win over FAM League side, Kedah United in the second round.
They also saw off the challenge from JDT II in the quarter-final of the competition, winning both legs 2-0 for a comfortable 4-0 aggregate win.
Kedah meanwhile are the in form team right now, having chased and caught up with Terengganu clubside, T-Team Titans on their way to the second tier title.
With just three defeats in twenty five matches in all competitions this season, Tan Cheng Hoe will definitely feel confident his players can match their Super League counterparts.
However one of those defeats came at the hands of JDT II who shocked them with a 1-0 win at the Darul Aman Stadium in Alor Setar in the FA Cup.
Inconsistencies saw JDT II promotion push falter in the later stage of the season with three defeats and a draw in their last six matches saw them eventually finishing in fifth place, fourteen points adrift of champions, Kedah.
GROUP B
Super League champions, Johor Darul Takzim (JDT) are expected to stroll into the quarter-finals from the looks of things here.
Despite an all Super League teams making up the group, Perak and Sarawak finished in the bottom half of the table while the Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) found themselves relegated to the Premier League.
The only thing that could help the trios are JDT's AFC Cup commitments which could end soon if they failed to get the required result in Hong Kong against South China FC.
Thus it will the race for the second spot from this group and the three of them seem to have equal chance of accompanying JDT to the knock-out phase.
One interesting point in this group however, is the on-going feud between JDT and Perak fans with the last incident happening after The Bos Gaurus 2-0 defeat to The Southern Tigers in Johor Bahru.
On their way back, the Perak supporters alleged they were attacked by JDT supporters who threw objects at their buses causing damages and injuries to some.
In the past, there have been a few incidents between the two sets of supporters that saw the intervention of the Police and one could expect them to happen again in the Malaysia Cup.
GROUP C
Selangor will continue with their Mission-33 this season and they look good in getting into the knock-out phase with either Felda United or Kelantan accompanying them.
However, that will depend on Mehmet Durakovic getting his tactics right against the wily Irfan Bakti who pushed The Red Giants all the way in during their two matches this season.
Felda United meanwhile will continue relying on Irfan's man-management skills to motivate his players to get the required results and with the experience of old horses like Indraputra Mahyuddin and Shukor Adan around they could edge it over Kelantan for a place in the last eight.
Kelantan are a shadow of their former self but they still possess enough quality in their squad to reverse the form book.
Players like Khairul Fahmi Che Mat, Badhri Radzi, Norfarhan Mohamad, Wan Zack Haikal, Wan Zaharulnizam and Fakri Saarani could deliver the goods on their day.
T-Team Titans are not expected to play other part than as spoilers in this group.
After losing influential figures like David Oniya who passed away in a friendly, ironically against Kelantan; and their topscorer, Farhod Tadjiev to a long term injury, The Titans simply fell apart.
They only managed to register three wins in their last ten matches and after leading the Premier League table found themselves pipped to the two promotion spots on the last day of the league season after losing to Kuantan FA in a must win battle.
GROUP D
This is a group where Pahang should reign supreme over the inconsistent Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) and Premier League sides, Penang and PKNS FC.
The Elephants did the double over PDRM winning comfortably 5-3 in Shah Alam before registering a 1-0 win in Kuantan.
They also knocked out The Panthers in the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 2-0 win in the first leg seeing them through after Penang held them to a 2-2 draw in the second at The Bandaraya Stadium.
Thus it will be interesting to see who will get the second spot to the knock-out stage between PDRM, Penang and PKNS FC.
The last two meetings between PDRM and Penang were in the 2014 season when The Cops did the double over their opponent on their way to the Premier League title.
The most recent meetings between PDRM and PKNS FC happened in the 2011 season when the latter won both matches.
PKNS FC meanhile pushed Penang for promotion in this season Premier League campaign but dropping points against the likes of DRB Hicom and Sabah eventually saw their challenge faltered.
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