Both the semifinals of the ATN Bangla Independence Cup Football Tournament will be held today(Sunday) at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club will meet Dhaka Mohammedan SC in the first semifinal at 4:30 pm while Sheikh Russell KC will encounter Muktijoddha Sangsad KC in the other semis which will start at 7 pm.
Coaches of the four semifinalist teams expressed their optimism to win match at a press briefing at the BFF House today (Saturday) afternoon.
Sheikh Jamal coach Joseph Afusi said, “We want to win the Independence Cup and we are ready for it, we have worked hard to reach the semis and we are focused on to use the chance of winning a title.”
“We have played against Mohammedan earlier and we respect them as a team, they are a big team and they have some good players– we are not relaxed and we will take the field to win. Maybe Alfred Emoefe did not play well in the last match but he is a good player and I expect him to be in his best. Sunday Chizoba is nursing an injury,” he further said.
Mohammedan coach Saiful Bari Titu said, “We have failed to move to the final of the Federation Cup as we lost in the semis but this time we are determined to be in the final. We want to wipe the trauma out with a win”.
“We have seasoned up with the matches we played and the young players have also gathered experience with the matches. We have lost twice and drew once against Sheikh Jamal and tomorrow we want to win. I have asked my players not to take any pressure. We don’t have any injury or card problems”, he added.
Sheikh Russell KC coach Maruful Haque said, “When we formed the team in the beginning of the season we set our eyes on winning all the titles of the circuit, we have won the Federation Cup and now the time has come to win the title of Independence Cup. We want to play the best football and win the semifinal with our all out effort and want to be in the final. We have gone through the recovery period and believe we are ready to face any challenge.”
On the other hand, Muktijoddha coach Shafiqul Islam Manik said, “Sheikh Russell is the best team on paper and in comparison they are far ahead of Muktijoddha. But this is football and on a particular day anything can happen, we will try our best to pull out a win and we are focused on our resources. As we did not do well previously, so we want to do better in this tourney.”
Source: UNB
