Kings keen to keep winning in their arena

Bashundhara Kings are keen to maintain their winning run at home when they take on visiting Maziya Sports & Recreation Club in their penultimate Group D match of the AFC Cup at the Bashundhara Kings Arena today.

The match will kick off at 6:00 pm with T-Sports telecasting the match live from the venue.

The four-time Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) champions are leading the four-team Group D with seven points from four matches.

A win over the Maldivian outfit will take them to the brink of realising their dreams of reaching the knockout stage for the first time in four attempts.

"We are just focusing on the real importance of the game and on what is going to happen inside the pitch," Kings' Spanish coach Oscar Bruzon said in the pre-match press conference yesterday.

"We have been doing beautiful work with our players and are identifying the strong points of Maziya that we want to neutralise and trying to understand where are their weaknesses to try and capitalise on them," said the Spaniard at the Kings Arena.

The Kings had begun their campaign in this year's AFC Cup with a 3-1 away defeat to Maziya, their first ever loss against the Maldivian outfits.

Bruzon said that his charges are feeling confident ahead of the return fixture and are determined to continue their undefeated streak in international competitions at their home ground.

The Kings have won their previous AFC Cup ties at the Kings Arena, defeating Odisha FC 3-2 and Mohun Bagan 2-1 this year.

"We have played three [two] matches at Kings arena and we have never lost. I don't call that luck. In terms of confidence, the confidence is full and absolute. The boys are working well and we are the same Bashundhara which played the last game here."

The Kings will step into the field with memories of their maiden win over Indian club Mohun Bagan Super Giants still fresh.

In that game, Kings' Brazilian forward Robson Da Silva scored his team's second and decisive goal.

The Kings, however, could be without their Brazilian captain against Maziya who returned to training for the first time on Saturday since the Mohun Bagan match.

Bruzon kept his lips tight about Robson's availability.

"We don't want to leak the information from inside. We are having some problems in the form of injuries. The calendar is tough with the continuity and discontinuity," Bruzon said.

"Robson has made a difference when we have big games… We are going to try to do everything to have all our players available. If our captain is not there, then Plan B is going to be a plan that will work," he added.

Maziya's Bosnian coach Milomir Seslija said that his team is keen to put up their best performance against the hosts.

"Bashundhara Kings is one of the best teams in our group and we will try to play our best against the good team. We are motivated and inspired to play against good teams like Bashundhara Kings."

In the other Group D match of the day, second-placed Mohun Bagan, who are equal on points with the Kings but are trailing them because of their head-to-head results against them, will take on third-placed Odisha FC at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata.