Bangladesh champions Sheikh Russel KC will start their qualifying round campaign of the AFC President Cup Football taking on KRL Football Club of Pakistan today (Wednesday) at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo. The match will start at 7pm Bangladesh time.Earlier, Air Force FC of host Sri Lanka will play Ugyen Academy FC of Bhutan in the opening match of the four-team Group A.Sheikh Russel KC, which earned treble in the last season, will play Air Force SC of hosts Sri Lanka on Friday (May 9) and Ugyen Academy FC of Bhutan on Sunday (May 11) in their remaining Group A engagements.Sheikh Russell KC made one and hour-long practice session on Tuesday at the Kalaria Football Complex, 20 kilometres away from team’s hotel. Sri Lanka weather is now like as Bangladesh. But the team is little bit worried about injury of Mithun Chowdhury. In a pre-tournament press conference in Colombo on Tuesday, President of FFSL Ranjith Rodrigo expressed his gratitude for AFC for granting the opportunity to hold an international club championship which will also give Sri Lankan an opportunity to watch overseas teams.Media Committee Chairman Balendra Anthony and Director Media and Marketing Rukmal Perere also addressed the press conference in addition to coach and captains of the participating teams, said a BFF media release here on Tuesday.In the press briefing, Montenegron [Serbian] coach of Sheikh Russal KC Dragan Dukanovic said they became champions in the league and it is a tough job for any coach to develop a winning in a short time. But he is confident that his team will perform well as all the South Asian teams are more or less of same standards. Commenting on his team at the press briefing, the coach of KRL Football Club of Pakistan Tariq Lufti expressed his concern over missing of two regular players of his squad due to injury, who have toured Palestine with national team and got the injury.”As the last year’s runners up, our team is motivated to meet the challenges here and will play competitive match,” he added. The Pakistani captain also echoed the voice of his coach.Coach Sampath Perera and captain WDS Fernando of Sri Lanka Air Force team said they are very confident to advance for the final round and as well as happy that they have no worries of injuries and will enjoy home environment. Bhutan coach Kiidnley Dorji said that they are here with a young team but they will go all out to meet with challenges here and do Bhutan proud in Football. The captain S, Gurang too is very keen to play in the tournament with young players and face the competition which is worth for future.Sheikh Russel KC teams: Players-Biplob Bhattacharjee, Masud Rana, Ashim Kumar Das, Hasan-al-Mamun, Rezaul Karim, Aminul Islam, Rajani Kanta Barman, Murad Hassan, Shakil Ahmed, Emrul Hasan, Jewel Rana, Sobuj Biswas, Fazlay Rabbi, Sohel Rana, Mithun Chowdhury, Anwer Hossin, Mohammad Robin, Sumon Ali, Pascal Millien, Ivan Kurtusic.
