Do-or-die for Abahani against Maziya
Last edition's zonal semifinalists Abahani are looking forward to getting out of AFC Cup's preliminary round-2 as they the take on Maziya of Maldives in Male today.
The match will kick off at 5:00pm (Bangladesh time).
The six-time Bangladesh Premier League champions are on the backfoot following a 2-2 draw in the first leg match at home, with a victory or least a 3-3 draw needed for them to get the better of the Maldivian opponents, against whom the Sky Blues do not have a good record.
Abahani were beaten twice by Maziya (2-0) and New Radiant SC (5-1) in AFC Cup group stages in 2017 and 2018. In the first leg this time, Abahani went behind down twice before bouncing back to level the margin.
"They [Maziya] have a slight advantage for getting two away goals but it is going to be a different game tomorrow [Wednesday] because we have an idea of how Maziya play. We didn't do very well in the first leg and tried to rectify in training. It will be a good test for us," Abahani coach Mario Lemos said at a pre-match briefing in Male yesterday.
Lemos is taking the inspiration from their last group match against Minerva Punjab last year where they needed a win over to emerge group champions and they did it through a last-gasp header from Masih Saighani in the stoppage time of that match in India.
"We have got to be patient. Last year, we were in such a situation when we played against Minerva Punjab and we needed a win to qualify for the semifinals.
"We want to stop Maziya because they have quality players up front like Ibrahim [Mahudhee]. We have got to do better job of stopping them. If we can stop them defensively, then I think we will have a chance to score. I believe we can score in any match we play," said Lemos, who guided Abahani last season.
Echoing Lemos's sentiment, midfielder Mamunul Islam said they have quality strikers to score if they can defend well against Maziya.
"We worked on team defending in the last four days as the coach showed us role of each player during defending. If we want to win the game, we must defend better compared to the home match. We have no alternative, so our target is winning," Mamunul said.
Captain Nabib Newaj Jibon was also optimistic about the team's chances.
"Of course Maziya have the advantage, but we are not losing hope. We will have to give our best and if we do so, we would win the game," Jibon said. "We had different coaches when we lost to Maziya and New Radiant and had not had enough preparation. But this time we have good preparation like last year. We couldn't beat them before but this doesn't mean we can't do it now. If we play according to game plan, it is possible to win the match."
Manager Satyajit Das Rupu hinted that fit-again centre-back Tutul Hossain Badsha is likely to start in place of either Nasir Chowdhury or Raihan Hasan in hot and humid Male.
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