By IANS
New Delhi : Mahindra United will put the Federation Cup loss behind them and start afresh when they take on Lebanon’s Al Nejmeh in their home leg of the quarterfinal of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup here Tuesday.
“The Federation Cup is history, and we don’t want to think about it. The AFC match is a big thing for us. And if we win, we will be the first Indian team to qualify for the semi-finals,” said coach Derek Pereira after the team’s practice session at the Ambedkar Stadium.
Mahindra is only the second Indian team to make it to the last eight of the continental competition after East Bengal in 2004. They will play their away match against Al Nejmeh in Beirut Sep 26.
Mahindra had lost some good players in the summer transfer window and few expected that the famed Mumbai outfit could reach the finals of the Federation Cup.
But Pereira’s boys showed enough grit and determination and dumped national league champions Dempo Sports Club of Goa in the semis to reach the final against East Bengal.
Mahindra, however, went down 1-2 to East Bengal Saturday after they were reduced to 10-man in the first half.
“We were robbed of the title. The refereeing was of very poor standards but it is no use of thinking about all these things. We are a good team, but Al Nejmeh will be tough though not unbeatable,” said the Mahindra coach.
Mahindra will be without the services of Surojit Bose, Goutam Debnath, Manas Das and Dharmraj Ravanan, as they played for Mohun Bagan in the same tournament last season.
“We will be missing some good players but still we have a good back-up supply for the main team,” said Pereira, declining to name his first eleven.
Al Nejmeh, however, suffered a bitter setback in June when two of their key players were among the 10 people killed in a bomb blast in Beirut.
Defender Hussein Dokmak, 25, and playmaker Hussein Neim, 20, were driving back home after a friendly game when the blast ripped through their car. Both were killed on the spot. Dokmak played for the first team while Neim was promoted at the beginning of the season from the youth to the first team.
“The team is still in a state of grief after the loss of our two most talented players but we are trying to come out of it,” said Al Nejmeh coach Nenad Stavric.
“We have come here to win and we have been taking part in the AFC Cup consistently for the past few years making it to the quarterfinals and semis regularly,” said the coach.
If Mahindra make it to the last four, they will meet either Jordan’s Shabab Al Ordun or Singapore Armed Forces in the semi-finals, Oct 2 and Oct 23. The final will be played over two legs Nov 2 and Nov 9.