ATKMB face FC Nasaf in unfamiliar Uzbek territory in AFC Cup Inter-Zone Semis

Up towards a formidable opponent in an unfamiliar territory, ATK Mohun Bagan will begin as underdogs of their AFC Cup Inter-Zone Semi-final towards FC Nasaf of Uzbekistan right here on Wednesday.
ATK Mohun Bagan are with out central defender Sandesh Jinghan, who has joined Croatian membership Sibenik for the reason that 1-1 draw with Bashundhara Kings which noticed the Indian facet advance as South Asian Zonal champions.
Another heavyweight Hugo Boumos can be out, having been omitted from the squad to make method for Joni Kauko, a newly signed midfielder who appeared in all three of Finland’s matches at UEFA Euro 2020 earlier this 12 months.
The 2020 Uzbekistan Super League runners-up will play the make-or-break conflict within the acquainted surrounds of Markaziy Stadium, a venue the place they’ve tasted defeat simply twice in 11 house matches this season, together with their 3-2 win over Turkmenistan’s FC Ahal within the earlier spherical of the continental match.

In distinction, ATK Mohun Bagan have needed to journey through Dubai of their bid to advance to subsequent month’s Inter-Zone Final towards Lee Man FC of Hong Kong, and have been out of home league motion since March, with three AFC Cup group stage fixtures in August their solely aggressive motion in over six months.
Despite the shortage of aggressive preparation matches, Antonio Lopez Habas’ facet hope to make up for it in expertise and ambition.

The star attacking duo of Roy Krishna and David Williams have travelled after combining for 3 of the crew’s six objectives within the group stage, whereas goalkeeper Amrinder Singh shall be aiming to construct on a constructive begin to life at ATK Mohun Bagan.
Fans of the Kolkata-based facet will, on the very least, expect a much better end result than the final Indian crew to enterprise to Karshi for an AFC Cup conflict, with Dempo struggling a 9-0 defeat within the group stage again in 2011.
Nasaf are match match, targeted and in type. Chasing the trophy, a decade after the membership received it in 2011, the settled nature of Ruzikul Berdiev’s outfit is underlined by the actual fact there are not any adjustments to the squad which efficiently navigated the Central Asian Zonal Final final month.
Serbian duo of Marko Stanojevic and Andrija Kaluderovic — each objective scorers towards Ahal — could also be well-known to followers from outdoors Uzbekistan, however Nasaf’s energy lies of their deep pool of younger native expertise, with Sherzod Nasruallev, Khusayin Norachaev, Akmal Mozgovoy and Khusniddin Alikulov all below 25, and all influential within the competitors to date.
Berdiev’s fees have proved unimaginable to comprise in Asia this season, averaging 67 p.c of possession and 21 photographs at objective per outing over their 4 fixtures and scoring a number of objectives in each match.