MANILA – Ceres Negros of the Philippines is in a must-win situation when it visits Home United of Singapore in the second leg of the 2017 AFC Cup Zonal Finals on Wednesday at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore.
Game time is 7:30 p.m. The Negros Occidental-based team only needs a 1-0 or 2-1 victory to move on to the next round after settling to a 1-1 draw with Home United on Aug. 1 at the Panaad Park and Stadium in Bacolod City.
Ceres defender Manuel Herrera said they must avoid the mistakes they made in the first leg.
“It is the most important game of the season and we can make history again for the second straight year,” Herrera said. “We know already how they (Home United) play. They defend very well. We will try to surprise them.”
“I believe in my team always until the end. After the game I will be proud of them for sure because we will do everything on the field and try to bring back the zonal trophy to Bacolod,” he added.
As usual Ceres head coach Risto Vidakovic expects his players, including injured Stephan Schrock, to give their all as they continue to miss the services of Bienvenido Marañon.
“Home played defensively so it was not easy to penetrate,” Vidakovic said. “In leg 1, there was no space to play. Maybe we should play faster but it is not easy to do so. We have another 90 minutes there so everything is open.”
“We need to win there (in Singapore) and I think it will similar to (the first leg),” he added. “I’m expecting that and I hope we recover all the players that did not play in the last game and we will be stronger.”
The winner in the Philippines-Singapore Zonal Finals series will face Central Zonal champion April 25 of North Korea in a two-leg inter-zonal semifinals later this month./PN
