High on confidence, ATK Mohun Bagan would lock horns with Abahani Limited Dhaka in an AFC Cup play-off match at the Salt Lake Stadium on Tuesday.

A win against the Bangladesh club side will put the home team into the group stage of the AFC Cup, where they would join Kerala FC, Bashundhara Kings (Bangladesh) and Maziya Sports and Recreation (Maldives) in Group D.

ATK Mohun Bagan coach Juan Ferrando wants to treat the knock-out game as a final and he stays cautious. “We’ll try to do our best against Abahani Limited. I have trust in my team. But the opponents are also a good team. Our target is to qualify for the next round. So this match is like a final for us,” Ferrando said on the eve of the match.

“It is an important tournament for us. If we qualify for the next round, the players will improve more. International competitions are like an university. In school, you learn a lot, but your best moments are when you are in the university. The Indian Super League (ISL) is a good high school, but the AFC is an international competition and so it is like an university,” the Spanish coach added.

Ferrando thinks that fans’ presence at the stadium will be one of the biggest strengths for his side. “I believe a lot of fans will come to help us tomorrow (Tuesday). Of course, it’s an advantage to play at home, because the supporters are coming to support the players and the team. It’s better to play at home than away… I hope the atmosphere will be the same as it was one week ago against Blue Star.”

According to the local organising committee, 40,000 seats will be available for the match, up by 7000 from the game against Blue Star.

However, crowd support might also come with a bit of protest. It has been learnt that a fan club of the home team has plans to protest as they want ‘ATK’ to be removed from the club’s name.

Ground condition

The condition of the ground remains a concern for the home side. Senior pro Pritam Kotal said: “In the last game, the ground condition was not what we had expected. But I hope it will be slightly better for the play-off game. But we don’t want to think about anything which is not in our hands. As a team, we are ready to face the challenge.”

Injury concern

Brazilian Dorielton Gomes, Abahani’s star striker, is down with an injury. But the club’s Portuguese coach, Mario Lemos, wants to wait for Gomes till the very last minute.

“He has come with the team. We will take a final call about Gomes a few hours before the game,” Lemos said. The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) side, however, have four other foreigners — Costa Rican World-Cupper Daniel Colindres, Brazilian forward Raphael Augusto, Iranian defender Milad Sheykh Soleimani and Bosnian striker Nedo Turkovic — in their ranks. Raphael, by the way, has played for ISL sides Chennaiyin FC and Bengaluru FC.

Kick-off: 7pm