Bashundhara Kings eyeing first win against Mohun Bagan

Hosts Bashundhara Kings are looking forward to moving to the top of the table when they square off against group leaders Mohun Bagan Super Giant in their crucial AFC Cup match at the Bashundhara Kings Arena today.

The match will get underway at 8:00pm.

The four-time Bangladesh Premier League champions are three points behind Mohun Bagan in the four-team Group D, and a win over the Indian giants on home soil will push them level on seven points with Bagan.

However, a defeat or a stalemate will diminish Kings' hopes to get out of the AFC Cup group stage once again after having failed to do so in previous two editions. And, definitely It is not going to be an easy task for Kings, who never beat Mohun Bagan in their previous three AFC Cup meetings – a 4-0 thrashing in between two draws, including a 2-2 away draw two weeks ago in Bhubaneswar.

Despite making a poor start to the AFC Cup campaign with a 3-1 defeat away to Maziya SRC, Bashundhara Kings bounced back strongly to hand a 3-2 defeat to Odisha FC before playing out a 2-2 draw against Mohun Bagan in their last match. The charges of Oscar Bruzon can definitely draw inspiration from their last two matches to catch Mohun Bagan on home soil.

"We are looking forward to be competitive and contest for the top position of the group. We are aware of the strength of Mohun Bagan. But we are really looking forward and try to put all of our efforts and trying to get the positive result tomorrow," Spanish coach Oscar Bruzon.

Captain Robson Robinho also believes the match against Mohun Bagan will be a tough one but they are eager to secure full points in front of home crowd.

"Tomorrow is a tough and difficult game for us even though in the last game we played away from home, we should have availed chances to win the match. We will now play at our home. We will go there to have a great game tomorrow and try to get three points because it is very important for us if we want to top the group," said Robson, who will need to shine once again like the previous match in which he assisted his compatriot Dorielton Gomes before himself scoring the equaliser.

However, the defence is expected to be the main concern for the home team who have conceded seven goals in three matches and failed to keep a clean sheet in any of those matches.

Despite showing a lot of respect to Bashundhara Kings, Mohun Bagan's Spanish coach Juan Ferrando is optimistic about getting three points from Dhaka.

"It is an important match for both sides and we will try to do our best and get three points," Ferrando said at the pre-match press conference.

In our group stage, they [Bashundhara Kings] are the best team. Everyone knows about Bashundhara, who played the Asian Champions League (qualifying playoff). So it is a tough and difficult match but it is necessary for us to be focused on every detail because their foreign and local players improved a lot. We have a lot of respect for them but our mentality is to get three points," added Ferrando.