AFC Cup: Injury-hit Abahani desperate for win
Injury-hit Abahani will hope to stay in the AFC Cup race when they square off against leaders Chennaiyin FC in a crucial Group E encounter at the Bangabandhu National Stadium today. The match will get underway at 7:00pm.
Six-time professional league champions Abahani are three points behind Chennaiyin FC with four points from three outings. The Sky Blues are in a do-or-die situation and need an outright victory over the Indian outfit to stay in the race to advance to the next round for the first time in the club’s history.
Even though the Dhanmondi-based outfit dominated Chennaiyin FC two weeks ago in their 1-0 away defeat, they might have it harder at home because of injury worries in defence. And the recent injury to defensive midfielder Atiqur Rahman Fahad has worsened the situation ahead of today’s match against the two-time Indian Super League champions.
“If I told you we won’t miss Tapu [Barman] and [Atiqur Rahman] Fahad, it would be a lie but football is this. Injury happens. I spoke about the defence before, the more time the payers play together in defence, they get better. That’s is the point we are suffering from and conceding goals because we have been changing players a lot in defence due to injury problem, but I am hopeful they will play well tomorrow [Wednesday],” said Abahani coach Mario Lemos, who is seemingly in hesitation regarding picking his best eleven.
Whoever Lemos picks for today’s match, the Portuguese coach knows that a defeat will throw his team out of the race.
“Tomorrow’s match is a crucial one. If we lose the match, there is no chance. If we win, then we have same points with Chennaiyin and still have chance to advance to the final round. What we did in India gave us confidence but I told the players to do more. We can’t be happy with what we did in India because we played well but lost the match. The defenders must be more focused and not allow Chennaiyin to play and if they allow them to play, we will be in trouble,” said Lemos.
However, the Portuguese coach is looking for a dominant performance from his charges upfront to reduce the pressure on the defence and keep more possession so that the opposition get lesser chance to score. He will bank on his on-song striking duo of Sunday Chizoba and Nabib Newaj Jibon, both of whom scored in their last domestic match to steer Abahani to a 2-0 win over NoFel SC. Jibon is confident about securing full points against the Indian club.
“There is supposed to be shortage of confidence if important players are ruled out due to injuries. However, we are not thinking of those players; rather we are thinking of executing the game plan that the coach relayed to us in training. If we can transform our practice-performance to the match, then we will get goals and win the match,” said the striker.
Lemos’s counterpart John Gregory wants to continue their unbeaten run despite admitting that Abahani are a tough opponent.
“‘We will have a very tough game tomorrow night here in Dhaka. We know that your team is very good and played very well against us [in Ahmedabad]. Tomorrow’s match probably will be the toughest match in the group stage. It can be very, very difficult to play against [them],” said the Chennaiyin FC coach.
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