Abahani leave for Bangalore today

Bangladesh Premier League champions Abahani will leave for India today to play their third fixture of the AFC Cup against JSW Bengaluru FC. The Sky Blues are hoping to put up a better show this time around than they had against Mohun Bagan earlier this month.

The five-time Bangladesh Premier League champions lie at the bottom of their four-team group with two successive defeats from as many matches while Bengaluru FC, AFC Cup's last editions runners-up, are on top with two wins, one being over Mohun Bagan and the other over Maziya SRC.

Ever since the start of the AFC Cup, a second-tier club competition in Asia, the Dhanmondi-based outfit have had difficulties performing due to the departure of five players and other injury issues plaguing the side. In addition, defender Samad Yussif was left out due to visa complications.

However, it seems that Croatian coach Drago Mamic is more concerned about his side's collective performance rather than the overall result, especially after the 1-3 loss to Mohun Bagan, another Indian outfit.

“We will be playing against the defending champions of India and also finalists of the last AFC Cup. We know everything about this club [Bengaluru] but we must take care about our performance, to be better than last time,” said Mamic yesterday, emphasising on the need to perform consistently throughout the match.

“We played very a good match against Mohun Bagan in the first half and that was an improvement but we must start thinking about how to prolong this performance to be very good for more than only one half.”

Mamic believes that playing with only two foreign players, as opposed to the four Bengaluru FC will field, is a big problem and added that his side, who have better physical fitness than before, are in a race against time to achieve competition worthy form.

Mamic also has few options to shuffle his squad and so is opting for solid defence when they face Bengaluru.

“We can't go there like favourites and promise somebody that we are going there for win because it will be ridiculous in my opinion,” Mamic said. “I think everybody who is thinking rationally must know at the moment that Bengaluru is a better team than us. We must play something which can ensure defence.”

The match is set to be held on April 18 at Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore.