AFC Champions League Q&A: Chan Yuen-ting (Eastern SC)

The-AFC.com caught up with the record-breaking coach to discuss her views on the step up in level and the challenges that lie ahead in Group G of Asia’s premier club competition.

Q: Coach Chan, how is the preparation for Eastern’s first ever AFC Champions League campaign going?

We have won our last few league games so the confidence and the spirit of the team is quite good. But the speed of the game and the quality will be totally different from local games so it will take time for us to get used to these kind of matches.

We need to focus on defence, and especially our discipline and attitude during the match. At this moment I don’t want to create extra pressure for myself and my players so we just want to do our best and try to go as far as we can.

We will try to prepare well before the first game and I hope that maybe we can get a good result. I think it is really meaningful for football in Hong Kong because it’s the first time we have a representative in the AFC Champions League. Everyone is very excited about this competition.

Q: What are your thoughts on a tough group that includes Guangzhou Evergrande, Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Kawasaki Frontale?

Before they drew the groups we knew that we would face Japanese, Korean or Chinese teams so we knew we would have a very difficult group. But now we have the biggest club in Asia, Guangzhou Evergrande, and then Suwon and Kawasaki, and we understand the difference in level between Eastern and the other teams.

But in football nothing is impossible and I think it is a very good opportunity for us to learn from the opponents and from the games. So, no matter if the results are good or disappointing, we will just get through everything together.