The Maldives will host this year’s South Asia Zone’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup qualifiers matches. This means Thimphu City Football Club, the champions of the Bhutan Premier League 2020, will now face club Eagles in their home ground for the Preliminary Round One of the AFC Cup 2021.
The Match will be played at the Male National Stadium on 7th April.With the official confirmation of the centralised venue for the qualifier match announced as the Maldives recently, Thimphu City FC has an uphill task to overcome facing a host team.
“In terms of venue, it was the last venue that we hoped for because if we consider logistics, it is the farthest. It would have been much better if it was to be played in Nepal. Not only in terms of duration, the time to get there and in terms of expenses as well, but it is also the worst that we could have expected,” said Hishey Tshering, the president of Thimphu City Football Club.
Nevertheless, Thimphu City FC is confident of putting up a good fight. They will leave for the game this week.
“Right now their league is going on and in terms of match fitness and all they should be much better than us but they are not having a good season this time as they are at the bottom of the table in their league. So that is giving us some hope. And we are hopeful that we will beat them,” he added.
However, Thimphu City FC will be without Karma Shedrup Tshering who is one of the key players of the club. And in terms of new signing, the club could only sign a Bhutanese centre defender from Paro United Football Club ahead of the qualifiers.
If Thimphu City FC wins the match, they will play against Dhaka Abahani of Bangladesh in the second round of the qualifiers. And if their winning streak continues, they could face the Indian giants Bengaluru FC in the play-offs.
Thimphu City FC was crowned as the champions of Bhutan last year with an impressive run of 13 matches without a defeat in 14 games.
Passang Dorji
