KUALA NERUS: Injury-hit Terengganu FC (TFC) intend to collect all three points when they entertain Stallion Laguna FC of the Philippines in their Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup Group G match on home ground tomorrow.
TFC head coach Tomislav Steinbruckner said several key players, including Safwan Mazlan and skipper Habib Haroon, could not even train yesterday due to injuries suffered during their Malaysia Cup semi-final, first-leg match against Kuala Lumpur City (KL City) on Saturday (Oct 21).
However, the Croatian-born coach said he would use today’s final practice session to evaluate and decide on tomorrow’s starting 11.
“Safwan and Habib (injuries) still doubtful. But we will put out the best team to beat Stallion Laguna FC.
“Tomorrow, I expect a good match from my team. But we will have to find more energy because playing at noon… at 4 pm is not good for the players,“ he told a pre-match media conference at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium here today.
Meanwhile, Stallion FC coach Ernest Nierras admitted that being quite a new club in the Philippines, the quality of his players is nowhere near that of a team like TFC, who are one of the more prominent clubs in the Malaysia League besides Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT).
However, he hopes to return home with a share of the spoils, having lost their first two group matches to Bali United and Central Coast Mariners FC.
“We will play hard tomorrow. If it goes our way, good… if not, we learn something to make our club better in future,” said Nierras, who is also the owner of Stallion Laguna FC.
After two matches, the Turtles are second in Group G with four points while Stallion Laguna FC, who have lost both matches, prop up the standings. -Bernama