AFC Cup Qualifiers: Depleted Mohun Bagan confident against Club Valencia

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Image : Mohun Bagan

Internet Desk: Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan will look to put a foot forward to qualifying for the Group Stages of the AFC Cup. The Mariners will lock horns with Club Valencia of Maldives tomorrow at the National Stadium in Male.

Dogged with injuries, a depleted Mariners side had a training session at the match venue for an hour. With most of the key players missing, it will be a real test for assistant coach Shankarlal Chakraborty to come good against the opponent.  Mohun Bagan booked them a place in the AFC Play-off Stage as a 2-1 win over Sri Lanka’s Colombo FC saw the Indian side secure a 4-2 aggregate success in the Preliminary Stage.

Club Valencia on the other hand got the better of Thimphu City in the Play-off stage.

Bagan assistant coach Shankarlal Chakraborty will be forced to make quite a few changes in the playing eleven. Sony Norde, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Pritam Kotal, Debjit Majumder, Pranoy Halder did not travel with the team to Maldives. According to Shankarlal, “We will be going for a win. Initially we need to assess them before going for the kill.”

The Mohun Bagan players and officials will be visiting the local High Commissioner for an official dinner.

On the team news Captain Katsumi Yuasa may come in the midfield like he did in the match against Shivajians on Saturday. Prabir Das will operate from the right wing. Scottish striker Darryl Duffy may be rested, but a final decision will be taken only after Shankarlal have a word with Sanjay Sen.

Shilton Paul will do the honour under the bars. Eduardo and Anas will marshal the central defence, while Souvik Ghosh and Sarthak Dolui will operate as the side backs. In the midfield Bikramjit will operate with Katsumi while Kean Lewis and Prabir Das will operate from the wing. Duffy and Balwant will start up-front for the Mariners.

The Maldives side has three Nigerians in their squad along with two national players. After struggling in the 2016 Divehi Premier League and narrowly avoiding relegation, Club Valencia earned a spot in the AFC Cup preliminaries by beating TC Sports Club to win a fifth Maldives FA Cup title. They have appeared in the AFC Cup three times before (2004, 2005 and 2009) but have yet to get past the Group Stage.