Local hopes rest with hosts

Hosts Chattogram Abahani will square off against Gokulam Kerala in the first semifinal of the Sheikh Kamal International Club Cup today.

The match will kick off at 7:00pm at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chattogram.

With Bangladesh Premier League champions Bashundhara Kings out of the competition, the 2015-edition champions are the only remaining hope of the host nation, but the host team is up against one of the most impressive sides of the tournament.

Chattogram Abahani registered 4-1 and 4-2 wins against defending champions TC Sports and Young Elephants in their first two group matches before suffering a 1-0 defeat against Mohun Bagan.

Gokulam Kerala, on the other hand, beat Bashundhara Kings 3-1 before playing out a goalless draw with Terengganu FC and ending their group campaign with a 2-0 win over I-League champions Chennai City.

Chattogram Abahani coach Maruful Haque showed respect to the opponents at the pre-match press conference yesterday, but said they were confident of making it to the final.

“Before the tournament I said that our target is to regain the title. We have shown improvement in performance graph in every match and if this trend continues, we should win the semifinal,” the veteran coach said.

“They have some quality players and we have our plan regarding them. But we don’t have plans to mark a specific player, rather we will try zonal marking to stop their forwards,” Maruful added.

The foreign recruits of Gokulam Kerala have made the difference in every match, with Trinidadian forward Nathaniel Garcia scoring one goal and setting up three others while Ugandan striker Henry Kisekka bagging three goals so far.

Garcia scored from a free-kick in their first match and then set up two goals in their third match from free-kicks, each of the three being different in style. Maruful said they have studied the probable variations of set-pieces of the opposition team.

The Durand Cup champions have two more influential Trinidadians -- striker Marcus Joseph and midfielder Andre Etienne -- who could be game changers on their day. Chattogram Abahani captain Jamal Bhuiyan admitted that the opposition team’s foreign recruits are better than theirs’ but he was confident of stopping them in all regards.

“They have very good foreign players. They scored three against the Bangladesh champions [Bashundhara Kings]. It is going to be a closely-fought match” Jamal said. “But it’s our home ground; we will play in front of our crowd. So we should be the favourites.”

Gokulam Kerala coach Fernando Santiago Valera said they enjoy playing in front of a big opposition crowd. “We played against Mohun Bagan in the final of the Durand Cup in front of 40,000 people. We love crowds,” the Argentina-born Spaniard said.

Valera said that they were happy to have reached the final and were looking forward to playing good football and win the semifinal.

“They [Chattogram Abahani] are a very good team. They have national team players and a very good striker, Luka [Rotkovic]. We will try to be intensive and win the game,” the coach said.