Ceres goes all out for home win over Yangon United in AFC Champs League tonite

Match tonight (Panaad Stadium, Bacolod)

7 p.m. – Ceres Negros (Philippines) vs Yangon United (Myanmar)

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine titlist Ceres Negros FC seeks to put up a winning performance in front of home fans tonight against Myanmar counterpart Yangon United as it takes the first of three obstacles it needs to hurdle to make history and reach the group stage of the AFC Champions League.

Hosting their first ACL game at Bacolod’s Panaad Stadium after playing on the road thrice in last year’s qualifiers, the Busmen expressed confidence they could take care of business in the 7 p.m. encounter and advance to the second round of the preliminaries against Thai outfit Chiangrai United. 

A win in Thailand earns them the right to face Japan’s Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the succeeding playoff for a Group F slot.

“I’m very confident we will win, especially we’re playing at home,” said Ceres star Stephan Schrock, whose team hopes to reassert its mastery against a rival it previously beat in the Asean zone semis of the second-tier AFC Cup in 2018 on aggregate over two legs, 6-5.

The Busmen are motivated to go all the way to the main draw on their second try after getting close last time. In their 2018 debut, the Negros-based booters edged first-round foe Shan United of Myanmar on penalties, 4-3, then upset A-League side Brisbane Roar in Round 2, 3-2, before losing to Chinese club Tianjian Quanjian, 0-2, in the culminating dispute for a group stage berth.

“For sure, we’re ambitious,” said Ceres coach Risto Vidakovic, who retained the squad’s core of imports in Bienvenido Maranon and Super Herrera. “We still have a lot of things to work on but I think the players are motivated to repeat what they did before.”

“It’s very difficult to qualify for the Champions League group stage but we are going to compete, we’re going to give everything we have to qualify,” he added.