The Asian Dreams…. A dream which was kicked off by FC Goa…. Now, it’s the chance for ATK Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC. A lot of points in stake as they lock horns for the first time in any Asian Competition.
PREVIEW : ATK MOHUN BAGAN
ATK Mohun Bagan, who were the favourites to finish in the top of the Group D table, is now like a ship which is stuck in the middle of the sea. Sandesh Jhingan, who was their pillar the last season, has joined Croatian club HNK Sibenik, while their other Centre-Back, Jose Luis Espionosa Arroyo aka Tiri, will be unavailable as he haven’t taken his second dose COVID vaccine yet. The AFC regulation states that all players should take two dose vaccines before playing in their competitions. They will also miss the services of Michael Soosairaj, Prabir Das and Pronay Halder. It will be a herculean task for manager Antonio López Habas to close the holes in the ship. Their foreigners Roy Krishna, David Williams, Hugo Boumous and Carl McHugh, were all promising the previous season, but the fans will be eagerly waiting to see how the quartet will perform in the major competition. ATK Mohun Bagan have a lot of Indian talent like Liston Colaco, one of the sensation in Indian Super League 2020-21. However, the fans will be closely monitoring how they can fill up the big hole in the ship.
PREVIEW : BENGALURU FC
Bengaluru FC has been prolific in AFC Cup competitions. Under Albert Roca, they’ve played the AFC Cup final back in 2016. This time, the fans will be hoping to repeat that fairytale, under Marco Pezzaiouli. His managerial debut with Bengaluru FC against Nepal Army saw his team winning 5-0. They were fantastic in the backline and midfield, but lacked a good finishing. They scored all of them in the second half after Rahul Bheke and Cleiton Silva scored two goals for their team. The team had a lot of chances, but missed all of them in the first half. Against Club Eagles Malé, the fans felt as if they forgot to take their boots from their room. But thanks to Jayesh Rane, as he scored the decisive goal to help Bengaluru play the AFC Cup. The biggest problem this time round will be the out-of-form Sunil Chhetri and Udanta Singh. But the manager hopes that they’ll return to their best. The club will field 3 foreigners, with no Erik Paartalu. It’ll be interesting to see how they perform in a major competition.
TEAM NEWS
ATK Mohun Bagan, as mentioned earlier, will be missing the services of Jhingan, Tiri, Prabir, Pronay and Soosairaj. The news from the team camp is that everyone is fully fit and will be playing. As of Bengaluru FC, same is the situation, with all the players fully fit and without injury concerns.
PROBABLE LINEUPS
ATK Mohun Bagan : Amrinder Singh, Pritam Kotal, Carl McHugh, Subhashish Bose, Sumit Rathi, Liston Colaco, Deepak Tangri, Hugo Boumous, David Williams, Roy Krishna, Manvir Singh.
Bengaluru FC : Gurpreet Singh, Sarthak Golui, Y. Musavu King, Alan Costa, Ashique Kuruniyan, Rohit Kumar, Suresh Wangjam, Jayesh Rane, Sunil Chhetri, Cleiton Silva
SCHEDULE & DETAILS
ATK Mohun Bagan vs Bengaluru FC
Kickoff : 11.00 GMT (16.30 IST)
Venue : National Stadium, Malé
Live Telecast : Star Sports Network, Disney+Hotstar VIP and JioTV
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