Bambolim, April 13: A fancied Bengaluru FC will mark the start of a new era when they take on Nepalese side Tribhuvan Army FC in a preliminary stage two clash of the AFC Cup here on Wednesday.
The fixture will be Marco Pezzaiuoli’s first competitive game in charge of the Blues, since his appointment as head coach in February. “This is an important game for us because we exited the competition early last season, and we want to reach the Group Stage this year. The first step in that direction is to beat a strong Nepalese team and I believe we are strong enough to do that,” said Pezzaiuoli.
Tribhuvan Army Club recorded a 4-1 comeback victory over Sri Lanka Police in their preliminary stage one clash at the Dasharath Rangasala Stadium in Nepal last week, with striker Nawayug Shrestha scoring twice.
The Kathmandu-based team finished the Martyr’s Memorial League in second place in their previous campaign, with Shreshta finishing top scorer for the side with six goals.
In a winner-takes-all tie, the victors will advance to the playoff stage of the 2021 AFC Cup, with either Bangladesh’s Abahani Limited Dhaka or Club Eagles of Maldives their next opponents. Given their AFC Cup history, Bengaluru FC will start as favourites although Tribhuvan cannoth be taken lightly, especially after their impressive win over Sri Lanka Police in the preliminary round one last week.
Head coach Nabin Neupane’s side showed great resilience to fight back after going a goal down and won’t be lacking in confidence against a Bengaluru side who are coming off a difficult Indian Super League season.
The former champions finished seventh in the ISL. The good news for newly appointed Bengaluru head coach Pezzaiuoli is the availability of the talismanic Sunil Chettri, who has recovered from COVID-19.
The Indian captain is looking forward to the tie and is expecting to make up for their ISL struggles.
Bengaluru have been in Goa for a little over three weeks, and have completed a month of training under Pezzaiuoli, Gabonese defender Yrondu Musavu-King remains the lone foreign inclusion in the squad, and is expected to man the Blues’ backline alongside Juanan Gonzalez.
Five BFC B players, Sharon Padattil, Muhammad Inayath, Damaitphang Lyngdoh, Akashdeep Singh and Sivasakthi Narayanan, have also made Marco Pezzaiuoli’s squad for the playoff. (PTI)
