Busmen play at Rizal in AFC Champs League

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine titlist Ceres Negros FC will call Rizal Memorial Stadium its home for its campaign in the AFC Champions League preliminaries.

The Busmen will host Myanmar league champion Shan United at the historic Rizal in the first stage of the Champions League qualifiers on Jan. 14, marking their international debut in Manila.

Panaad over in Bacolod has staged all of Ceres’ previous international sorties but the venue is up for renovation in line with Negros’ hosting of the Palarong Pambansa in 2021.

The Ceres booters, fresh from a spotless drive in the Philippine Football League’s league and cup competitions, will seek to overcome their Burmese rivals to earn a crack at the waiting Thai FA Cup ruler Port FC in the second stage in Bangkok, where the right to move forward and face J. League’s FC Tokyo in the final playoff round is at stake.

Earlier this year, the Busmen quickly bowed out of contention for a spot in the ACL main competition as they lost to Yangon United in the opening stage of the qualifiers.

Ceres had its best Champions League performance in 2018 in a stellar debut where it edged Shan on penalty shootout in Stage 1, 4-3, and scored a massive 3-2 reversal over A-League side Brisbane Roar in Australia, before bowing to Chinese outfit Tianjin Quanjian in the final playoff stage, 0-2.

If the Bacolod-based squad fails to crack the prestigious Champions League, it embarks on another stint in the second-tier AFC Cup.