Bangladesh champions Bashundhara Kings will play Indian champions ATK Mohun Bagan FC in a ‘do or die’ Group D match of the AFC Cup Football’2021at the National Football Stadium in the Maldives capital Male on Tuesday.
BPL champions Bashundhara Kings, which bagged four points from two matches with a win and a draw, will meet the oppoents at 5 pm (BST) in a must-win situation to clinch group D title.
The Kings need to win to qualify for the Inter-Zonal Semifinal as 2nd Bangladesh team after Dhaka Abahani in 2019.
But the Indian Super League champions are in the upper hand securing full six points from straight two wins and need just a draw to assure their inter zonal semifinal berth.
Though it will be tough match, the Kings can still win on Tuesday.
For the Bangladesh champions, it will be Brazilian forward Robson Robinho who scored against Maziya S&RC in the first match, their main source of inspiration in the attack alongside Raul Becerra of Argentina.
Big budgeted Bashundhara Kings, which clinched the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) crown recently with four matches to spare, is the only group D team of the AFC Cup which did not concede any goal in two matches and remained unbeaten.
Bashundhara Kings made a good start in their first AFC Cup campaign outplaying Maldivian side TC Sports Club by 5-1 goals in Dhaka in the last year’s cancelled tournament, also a made a good start in this year’s AFC Cup, beating Maldives champions Maziya Sports & Recreation Club by 2-0 goals last Wednesday (Aug 18).
Kings maintained their unbeaten run in the group D like Kolkata Mohun Bagan FC after playing goalless draw with another Indian side Bengaluru FC, led by Indian captain Sunil Chhatri.
Mohun Bagan FC earned hundred percent success in the ongoing meet beating Bengaluru FC 2-0 in the first match and also outplayed Maziya S&RC by 3-1 goals in the 2nd match.
Marco Pezzaiuoli’s Bengaluru FC ( one point) and Maldivian Maziya S&RC (zero) were already eliminated from the meet and will meet each in the last group D match on Tuesday (Aug 24) at 10 pm (BST) at the same venue.
Ahead of the Tuesday’s match, Kings Spanish coach Oscar Bruzon said, “We are still in the race and have another opportunity to reach the next round. We want to utilize this big opportunity”.
ATK Mohun Bagan head coach Antonio Lopez said,” We have six points, and no other team has that. We have the possibility to draw, but we don’t have to think that way, only possibility for us is to try to win, and this will be our target for the next match.”
Source: United News of Bangladesh