Tribhuvan Army Football Club (TAFC) aim to advance into the next round of the AFC Cup 2021 Play-off beating Sri Lankan Police Team at Dasharath Stadium, Kathmandu on Tuesday.
The runners-up of the first division league TAFC got the opportunity to compete in the AFC Cup after League champion Machhindra FC failed to get the AFC Club Licence. TAFC is the only top-tier team of Nepali to be awarded the Licence.
The clash between Sri Lankan Police and Nepalese Army will be held under the floodlight and the match will be kicked off at 05:30 PM local time.
Addressing the pre-match conference, TAFC Coach Nabin Neupane said they would secure the spot at the second play-off round of the regional cup beating Sri Lankan opponent at home turf.
“Our team is all set and good in shape. We make our home supports happy by playing a modern football against the visitors,” Coach Neupane said.
“We want to cross the first playoff round and make further plans for the Cup,” Coach Neupane added.
If Nepal’s representative TAFC will be able to beat Sri Lankan Police in their first playoff match on Wednesday, they will face the Bengaluru Football Club in the second play-off on April 14.
The win over Bengaluru Football Club will send them to the play-off final to be held on April 21. The winner from the play-off will secure their spot in the group ‘D’ in the group stage of the Cup.
“We are confident about winning the clash as we started our regular training after receiving AFC Club license,” Coach Neupane informed. However, the injury of Tek Bahadur Basnet and defender Suman Aryal will make little difference, said Neupane.
TAFC captain Bharat Khawas said that they take the battle against Sri Lankan Police team as an opportunity.
Sri Lankan Police head Coach Jhilau Alpensu said they had prepared for a short time but are with a good shape team.”Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we could not conduct training for a long time.
We prepared for the last two months. As this is a club game and we have three foreign players in the squad. I hope it will be enough for us to win the match against the home team,” Coach Alpensu added.
Sri Lankan Police team captain Chamik Kumara was delighted to play in Nepal.
Source : THE RISING NEPAL
