Seoul: Coach Choi Yong-soo is looking to maintain FC Seoul’s strong start to their 2016 AFC Champions League campaign with a victory over Japanese champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Tuesday afternoon's Group F clash at Seoul World Cup Stadium.
Last week, Brazilian striker Adriano scored four as Choi’s former continental finalists recorded an emphatic6-0 win over Thai Premier League winners Buriram United at Buriram Stadium to leave them as the early pace-setters in the group, ahead of China’s Shandong Luneng who defeated Sanfrecce 2-1 in Japan.
The Korean FA Cup winners will kick off their K-League Classic season on Saturday, but before then Choi is expecting a tough test from their J.League visitors.
“That was a perfect start to the season for us but it is in the past,” he said. “I have told the players to forget about it and focus on Tuesday's game. To win 6-0 may be good for the fans but as a coach there were many aspects, both positive and negative to consider. I want the players to maintain their focus.”
“It is not going to be easy as we know that Hiroshima are a strong team. But we are at home and are looking to show our fans what we can do for the first time this season.”
Choi also looked back to the meetings between the two teams in the group stage of the 2014 tournament. Seoul took first place in the group standings but only took one point from their two meetings with the Japanese club.
“The results were not great,” recalled the coach. “It was good experience for us but experience is just experience. We have to go out and get the result we want tomorrow and that is the focus. We will not be thinking about the result from two years ago.”
Sanfrecce have started the season slowly. Last year’s J.League winners followed up their loss at home to Shandong with another defeat in front of their own fans by losing 1-0 to Kawasaki Frontale as the new Japanese domestic season kicked off last Saturday.
The Hiroshima-based club will also be without striker Hisato Sato and midfielder Toshihrio Aoyama due to injury.
“It is not ideal and is a frustrating situation,” said Sanfrecce coach Hajime Moriyasu. “But we got some good results last season when we rotated our squad and that should stand us in good stead for this test.”
“We are expecting a very tough game. Seoul are strong physically and we will have to be at our best to stop them.
“It is a tough game but we are looking to get a good result.”
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