ATK Mohun Bagan will lock horns against Bangladesh’s club Abahani Dhaka in the 2022 AFC Cup play-off round. The match will take place at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata on the 19th of April 2022. The winner of this match will qualify for the group stages of the event.
The Mariners hammered Sri Lankan club Blue Star FC by 5-0 on Tuesday at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata. On the other hand, Abahani Dhaka was given a walkover after AFC confirmed that the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) confirmed Club Valencia’s withdrawal from the tournament. Thus, their match was canceled and they will now play the Preliminary third round.
Subsequently, if ATK Mohan Bagan manages to win their third round, then they will be placed in Group D alongside Bashundhara Kings of Bangladesh, Maziya of the Maldives and Hero I-League champions Gokulam Kerala.
All the group stages will be hosted by Salt Lake Stadium from May 18 to May 24 and thus ATK Mohun Bagan will have the home advantage.
Meanwhile, ATK Mohun Bagan had topped their group in the 2021 AFC Cup and thus qualified for the inter-zone playoff semifinals. But they suffered a 0-6 drubbing against Uzbek side FC Nasaf while playing away from home.
On the other hand, ATK Mohun Bagan had finished in third place in the recently concluded Hero ISL 2021-22 season after winning 10 matches out of the 20 they had played. However, their journey came to an end when they were beaten by eventual winners Hyderabad FC by 3-2 on aggregate in the semifinals.
The team’s head coach Juan Ferrando was happy with his team’s performance against Blue Star FC but stated that the focus is now on their next match.
