New Delhi: As Mohun Bagan’s entire pre-season schedule revolved around their AFC Champions League 2 in the 2025-26 season, there’s an acute sense of awareness within them of the need to put their best foot forward in campaign-opening home game against Turkmenistan’s Ahal FK on Tuesday.
Last season they were considered to have “withdrawn” citing security reasons for refusing to travel to Iran to play against Tractor SC, but weren’t imposed additional sanctions as the Asian Football Confederation deemed their concerns justified.
But after a record-setting campaign to defend their Indian Super League Shield, the Mariners would be keen to progress beyond their group that includes Jordan’s Al Hussein SC and Iran’s Sepahan.
Since Ahal represents the lowest-ranked country in the group (140), they need to begin with three points, not only to get an early boost but to instil genuine belief in their objective.
Continental matches, however, demand extra effort, as Bagan have learned through inter-zonal play-off heartbreaks in 2021 and 2022 and a group-stage exit in 2023-24.
Only training, no match time
With additions of India international defender Mehtab Singh, Tekcham Abhishek Singh and Brazilian forward Robson Robinho in an already star-studded squad, helmed by Jose Molina who was brought in before last season with an eye on Asia, ambition is not something they are short of.
Hence their pre-season was tailored specifically to begin in August for the ACL 2 campaign, even at the cost of Durand Cup, where the under-cooked team lost in the quarter-finals to East Bengal.
In aiming to higher glory, they decided to use the Durand Cup matches as part of preparation, along with refusal to release players for India’s CAFA Nations Cup engagement.
These decisions raised eyebrows but would seem justified only if they win at the Salt Lake stadium with a side that opted to play only one practice game (0-0) against fellow ACL 2 campaigners FC Goa.
Similar to Bagan, Ahal too have multiple national team players within their ranks. But as they are without foreigners, Bagan would fancy their chances of dictating proceedings right from kick-off.
Molina would have to show plenty of astuteness while selecting his playing XI, as not all players are fit enough to play for 90 minutes while many of them don’t have competitive enough game-time in their legs, with Manvir Singh is all but out with a hip injury.
Having already played 16 domestic league games (current second in standings) and a 2-1 win over Tajikistan’s Regar-TadAZ Tursunzoda in the ACL 2 play-offs, Ahal won’t be short on match sharpness.
Which makes it essential for Bagan to seize territorial control from the very beginning and squeeze the visitors towards the edge of their penalty box.
Ahal have a reputation for being a resilient outfit that looks for fast breaks and a direct approach to score, making pace a key aspect while defending against them.
Creating space through the wings while stopping their opponents could be battle that could well be the deciding-factor.
Match Details:
Match: Mohun Bagan Super Giant vs Ahal FK
Venue: Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata
Date: September 16
Kick-Off Time: 7:15pm IST
Live streaming on Fancode