Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Bengaluru: Bengaluru FC head coach Ashley Westwood has stressed the champions of India will be fully prepared for their inaugural continental campaign, which kicks-off with a 2015 AFC Champions League Preliminary round 1 match against Malaysian counterparts Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) on Wednesday.
The fledgling Karnataka-based club, formed in 2013, emphatically announced its presence in the Indian football arena by winning the I-League in its debut season and is keen to make a similar impact as the Blues embark on Asian competition for the first time.
“We’ve been back together since July 17 for pre-season and training under all kinds of scenarios,” Westwood told www.the-afc.com.
“We’ve been to China on a tour, played the Durand Cup, the Federation Cup and by the time we play our first AFC game, we would have played four league games which is a lot of game practice. Any kind of game practice is always good before an upcoming fixture like this one.”
Bengaluru reached the last four of the 127th edition of the Durand Cup where they lost to eventual champions Salgoacar but went a step further in the Federation Cup and took the trophy courtesy of a 2-1 defeat of Dempo in the January 11 final.
Reflecting on leading Bengaluru to their second major trophy win and its significance in giving his players a psychological boost ahead of their trip to Johor, Westwood said:
“Any football match victory or tournament win will breed a little confidence. By the time we play the AFC tournaments, we would have played four league games and that’s a good number. That’s a lot of football since the Federation Cup but it all counts for nothing when we start playing our AFC games.”
Bengaluru are participating in AFC competition for the first time while JDT reached the second round of the 1996/97 Asian Club Championship and took part in the Group Stage of the 2009 AFC Cup (as Johor FC prior their rebranding to JDT in late 2012).
Current JDT coach Bojan Hodak is no stranger to AFC competitions having led Cambodian side Phnom Penh Crown during the Group Stage of the 2011 AFC President’s Cup before back-to-back AFC Cup campaigns with Kelantan, leading JDT’s Malaysia Super League rivals to the quarter-finals in 2012 and the round of 16 the following year.
Westwood, conversely, will be making his Asian club continental debut on Wednesday and while the former Kettering Town player-manager lacks the experience of his Croatian counterpart, the 38-year-old Englishman feels that isn’t of relevance when JDT and Bengaluru meet in Johor’s Stadium Tan Sri Dato' Haji Yunos.
“This is no factor whatsoever. I am experienced in football – be it as a player or a coach regardless of where you’ve been at,” he said.
“A football match is a football match so it doesn’t make any difference with regards to what areas we have worked in. He hasn’t worked in the English Premier League or the Championship but that doesn’t make any difference. He has his qualities and I have mine. It should be a good match.
“They are the Malaysian champions and are a little more established than us. We are a fresh club. They are two or three years ahead of us in terms of where we want to be so for us it’s just an experience that we want to relish and go and try to enjoy and put in a good performance.
“We want to go there and play well and who knows, if we do, the result may take care of itself. “
The winners of the intriguing encounter between the league champions of India and Malaysia will advance to Preliminary Round 2 where they will face Bangkok Glass in Thailand six days later. China's Beijing Guoan await the victorious side in the Playoff on February 17, with a coveted place in the 2015 AFC Champions League Group Stage up for grabs.
Defeat at any stage in the ACL qualifiers will see Bengaluru or JDT drop into the AFC Cup which could see the Malaysian side face East Bengal in Group F of Asia’s popular second-tier club tournament.
Photo: Bengaluru FC