Johor DT will be taking on Bangkok Glass FC in what should be an absolute cracker of an affair at the Thanyaburi Stadium tomorrow night.
Bojan Hodak’s men moved into the second preliminary round of the ACL qualifiers after their dramatic extra time victory over Bengaluru FC last week, but the challenge awaiting them in Bangkok will be considerably tougher.
While they finished 10th in last year’s Thai Premier League, Bangkok Glass are the reigning Thai FA Cup champions, and they possess a squad that is more than capable of causing troubles for the Southern Tigers.
The obvious player to watch would be Darko Tasevski, who mainly orchestrates their build up play from the middle of the park. He was second on the assists charts of the TPL last season, creating and manufacturing 11 goals throughout the campaign. But the Macedonian is more than capable of netting crucial goals as well.
Lazarus Kaimbi is another player that Bojan Hodak will be keen to keep an eye on. He was Bangkok Glass’ hero in the Thai FA Cup final, netting the only goal of the game as they triumphed against Chonburi FC.
That being said, Johor themselves will head into this game on high spirits. They’ve had a terrific start to the season, winning 2-0 against Pahang in the Charity Shield match, before performing admirably in their ACL debut against Bengaluru. And they also have a timely boost ahead of this clash, with Lucho Figueroa returning from injury, though it remains unclear as to whether he’ll start on Tuesday.
Junior Eldstal and Marcos Antonio have looked solid at the heart of their defence and that pairing will most likely continue, while Safiq Rahim will undoubtedly be spearheading the entire team from midfield.
Last time out, Bojan opted to not field any strikers in his starting eleven, before Jorge Diaz was eventually brought on in the second half. Should he adopt a conservative approach, we could very much see a repeat of that though, the Johor DT boss certainly has more options at his disposal with the return of Figueroa.
The stakes are certainly high in this one and the winner will earn a third round tie against Beijing Guoan, where the final battle for a slot into the group stages would take place. Johor DT have what it takes to triumph, but they need to wary of their Thai counterparts when both sides strut their stuff on Tuesday night.
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