MANILA – Kaya Futbol Club-Iloilo targets its second consecutive victory at the expense of Singapore’s Tampines Rovers F.C in the 2020 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup Group Stage at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium here tonight.
The Ilonggo football club was upbeat heading into the match scheduled at 7:30 p.m. after starting the campaign with a 2-0 victory over Myanmar’s Shan United that positioned them on top of Group H with three points.
Kaya head coach Oliver Colina said that he expects the match would likely be a competitive affair, but he remains confident in his team’s ability to cope with the Rovers’ fluid passing game.
“It’s very important to win. We prepared for this team. We’re ready for tomorrow’s game. We’re very confident,” Colina said during the pre-match press conference at Century Park Hotel.
Veteran midfielder Marwin Angeles said that the team will try to ride on the momentum and at the same time get a boost from the home crowd to pull off the win against the Singaporeans.
“We hoped to play in Iloilo, but Rizal is still our home and it’s nice to play in front of our home crowd. It will boost, for sure, our confidence. We hope we can still get a good crowd for tomorrow’s game,” Angeles said.
Tampines Rovers, for their part, also hopes to stretch its winning run after defeating PSM Makassar of Indonesia, 2-1, in its first assignment of the group stage on Feb. 12.
“That’s the best way to start the season. The challenge is, can we maintain the consistency? It’s going to be a long year,” said Tampines Rovers head coach Gavin Lee. “We’re all excited to be here. We’re expecting a fierce contest.”/PN
