Abahani fly for Male

Abahani Limited left here for Maldives Sunday afternoon ahead of the second leg of their AFC Cup 2020 preliminary round two match against Maziya Sports and Recreation Club in Male Wednesday.

The six-time Bangladesh Premier League champion conceded two crucial goals at home during the first-leg of the tie that ended in a 2-2 draw in Dhaka last week which made the away leg a must win situation, but a draw with a 3-3 margin or more would be enough to advance to the final qualifying play-off.

“We must improve our defensive line and be more compact and aggressive. We can’t allow them to dribble two/three players in one play and we must finish our chances because we won’t have so many like in Dhaka,” said Abahani head coach Mario Lemos before leaving the capital.

Abahani blamed not playing any competitive game for more than a month for the lackluster home draw against Maziya Sports and Recreation Club in the @theafcdotcom qualifying play-offs and are determined to come back stronger in the away leg next week.https://t.co/vg3QG8BmOv#AFC

— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) February 6, 2020

“Training have been going well. We are trying to rectify what we didn’t do so well in the last game. We know it will be a tough match in Maldives but we believe we have a chance,” added the Portuguese coach.

The availability of Tutul Hossain Badshah, who missed the first leg due to stomach pain, is still a concern for Lemos as the national center-back fell sick again and just took his medical report in the morning before taking the flight.