Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Kaya FC will be playing in their first ever home game in the AFC Cup at the Rizal Memorial Stadium on Tuesday (March 8) against Maldives’ New Radiant SC.
New Radiant coach Iordan Stoykov insisted that the Filipino club are the favorites of their group despite being the debutants of the competition.
“I’m thinking that Kaya is the best team in the group,” said Stoykov. “We have to show our best efforts to resist them and to achieve the acceptable result.”
But according to Philippine national team and Kaya midfielder OJ Porteria, the UFL club has yet to live up to such high praise.
“I have confidence in our team, in our coaching staff, and our management,” he said. “We need to prove ourselves.”
Kaya marked their maiden match in the AFC Cup with a narrow 1-0 defeat against Hong Kong’s Kitchee SC, and will look for a more positive result moving forward.
Related: Kitchee penalty sinks debutants Kaya FC
“We’re very confident, but we also have respect for each and everyone in our group,” said Porteria. “There’s no game in the AFC that will be easy for us, so we will approach it like every other game.”
“Just like [we did with] Kitchee, we will approach New Radiant and Balestier [the same way] as well.”
