BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (7 Nov 2022) – They say in football, anything can happen.
And while Timor Leste will be all out, Brunei Darussalam are not leaving anything to chance when the two sides clash in the second leg qualification rounds of the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022 tomorrow afternoon at the Track and Field Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex.
After the first leg two days ago, host Brunei lead 6-2 over Timor Leste – with only the winner at the end of the second leg tomorrow earning a slot for the final rounds of the biennial championship.
Timor Leste head coach R. Gopalkrishnan said that the four goals deficit will be hard to overcome but it is not impossible.
“Anything can happen in football, so for us, if it is meant that we go out at this stage, we will go out graciously and give the fans a very good game tomorrow,” said Gopalkrishnan.
“Of course, we have prepared something for the second leg but obviously, I can’t tell you what it is. We are not distressed or overly disappointed with the results from the first leg.“We know what happened in that game and we will correct them. We showed flashes of brilliance and we should do more of that and not get over-zealous.”
On the other, Brunei DS head coach Mario Rivera said that the team needs to forget about the first match and focus their energy on the return tie.
“In football, anything can happen, so we must approach this next match by playing our usual game. We cannot be defensive,” added Rivera.
“There were some issues from the first match to be corrected for sure but I believe that Timor Leste will have to play an open game as they need to come at us for the goals.
“So we will have to make sure that we exploit the spaces and do well in the counter-attacks.”
AFF MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CUP 2022
QUALIFICATION ROUNDS, Second Leg
FIXTURE
8 November 2022
1430hrs: Timor Leste (2) vs Brunei DS (6)
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