Phnom Pen: Johor upbeat ahead of Boeung Ket meeting
Metfone C-League champions Boeung Ket will open their doors to host Malaysian giants Johor Darul Ta’zim at Phnom Penh’s Olympic Stadium in a crucial match starting at 6pm tonight.
The three points in the group stage of 2017 AFC Cup is important with both sides looking to book their place in the next round, but the Malaysian outfit is upbeat on their chance of winning the game.
Meanwhile, Magwe of Myanmar will meet Global of the Philippines in another match in the same group on the same day.
In the prematch press conference held at Olympic Stadium yesterday, Johor manager Benjamin Mora told the reporters: “tomorrow is the decided match for us to take next step or not so we must win to get three points.
“Through the previous game, I can see that Boeung Ket played very well but they found themselves under pressure from our home supporters in Malaysia.
“However, we have to meet Magwe of Myanmar in our last game, I hope playing with Boeung Ket this time my team will try their best 100 percent to win the game and to go to the next round,” he added.
In the first meeting between the two teams in the group, Boeung Ket lost to Johor 3-0 on February 21. The visitors are in second place in Group F with seven points after they recorded two wins and one loss, while Global are leading the group with nine points from three games. Boeung Ket are in third place with four points and Magwe sit bottom of the group with two points.
However, Boeung Ket head coach John McGlynn said: “we don’t have any concerns for this match because we are well-prepared. We also trained together during the public holiday [Khmer New Year] so we are ready and know very well about the performance from Johor from our first meeting. We hope we can do well and we are happy that defender Sok Sovan returns to play.”
The Australian coach added: “we know that tomorrow’s match will be tough but we are confident that we can do it. We have to create as many as possible, we have to try our best to challenge with Johor”.
Boeung Ket defender Sovan, who will be retruning after an injury told the press conference: “for tomorrow’s match, I will try my best to help my team in the game. I know the visitors have good quality strikers and like to short ball but we will try to good and we are very confident because it is our home game.”
