Do or die for Abahani against FC Alga
Dhaka Abahani's hopes of ensuring a semifinal berth in the Sheikh Kamal International Club Cup are hanging by a thread, but the Sky Blues will still be holding onto those hopes and aiming for a victory against FC Alga of Kyrgyzstan at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong today.
TC Sports Club, who have already qualified for the semifinals, are top of Group B with six points and they will play South Korea's Pocheon Citizen FC -- who are second with four points -- in the opening match of the day. A stalemate between Pocheon Citizen and TC Sports Club will see both teams through and turn the day's second match between Abahani and FC Alga into an academic affair.
However if Pocheon Citizen lose to TC Sports Club by any margin, Abahani will have a chance to leapfrog Pocheon to second, but to do so they must win by a convincing margin in order to go through by virtue of a better goal difference.
“We have little chances to move into the semifinals as it also depends on the result of Pocheon and TC Sports Club. Whatever the result is in the first match, we will go there [to our match] for a win,” said Abahani captain Ariful Islam yesterday.
After suffering a 1-0 defeat to TC Sports Club, Abahani showed character in their second match against Pocheon as they played out a goalless draw and Croatian coach Drago Mamic believes that the bold performance against Pocheon will help Abahani play confidently.
FC Alga were tipped as the pre-tournament favourites but they were surprisingly eliminated after suffering two successive defeats and they are now determined to end their campaign on a winning note.
“We did not come here as favourites; rather we took this tournament as part of our pre-season preparations. As we lost the first two matches, we are looking to end the tournament with a victory over Abahani,” said FC Alga coach Alexander Beldinov.
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