Independence Day football semis Sunday
Dhaka, March 30: Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club and Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club Ltd lock horns in the first semifinal of the ATN Bangla Independence Cup at 4:30 pm at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on Sunday. In the second semifinal of the at 7: 00 pm Sheikh Russell will face Muktijoddha.
The coaches of the four semifinalists expressed their aspirations at the BFF House on Saturday.
Joseph Afusi, coach Sheikh Jamal- We want to win the Independence Cup and we are ready for it, we have worked hard to be in semis and we are focused 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 got 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.
Saiful Bari Titu, coach Mohammedan- We failed to move into the final of the Federation 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 tot win. I have asked my players not to take any pressure. We don’t have any injury or card problems.
Maruful Haque, coach Sheikh Russell- When we formed the team at the start 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 arrived to win the title of Independence Cup, we want to play the best football and winning the semifinal with our allout effort we want be in the final. We have gone through the recovery period and believe we are ready to face any challenge.
Shafiqul Islam Manik- Sheikh Russell is the best team on paper and in comparison is far ahead of Muktijodha. But this is football and on a given day anything can happen, we will try our best to pull out a win and we are focused to on our resources. As we did not do well in the league we want to do good in this tourney.