Let battle resume

The excitement begins again today with the next round of games in Group A of the AFC President's Cup. In the early kick-off at 1.30pm, Neftchi from Kyrgyzstan will have the upper hand over the Don Bosco team from Sri Lanka, with a mix of old heads and youngsters in the Kyrgyz team having too much know-how and talent for the Sri Lankans. 29-year-old Pavel Pavlov proved a handful for Abahani on Saturday, netting one of Neftchi's goals in their 2-0 success, while twenty-year old Marat Adzhiniiazov will be hoping lightning strikes twice, after his stunning 30-yard strike opened the scoring in the first game. I expect Neftchi to book their place as one of the two qualifiers from Group A today.
However, all Cambodian eyes will be on the second match at 4pm to see whether Phnom Penh Crown can repeat their deserved success from Saturday. In a confident display, they comfortably beat Don Bosco 3-0 to send the thousands in the stadium into raptures and set up an intriguing match this afternoon. Their opponents are Abahani, who despite losing to Neftchi, looked strong in defence and up front, Ibrahim Awudu, will be a key player. If he performs well, Crown will need to be on their mettle to contain him. For Crown, players like Kouch Sokumpheak, Kingsley Njoku and Chan Chaya will need to perform as well as they did on Saturday to test the Abahani defence. After their first game success, expectation is high amongst the Cambodian public for more Crown success.

Crown's Kingsley Njoku asks to hear the crowd after he scored the 1st goal on Saturday. Photo: Tep Phany, FFC.

Kingsley Njoku in action against Don Bosco on Saturday. Photo: Tep Phany, FFC