Safa coach Samir Saad is hoping that his side can build up a commanding AFC Cup semi-final lead when they host Dempo in the first leg.BEIRUT – Safa coach Samir Saad is looking to secure an early advantage when his team when host India's Dempo in the first leg of their 2008 AFC Cup semi-finals at Beirut Sports City Stadium on Tuesday.
Safa, who are taking part in the competition for the first time in their history, qualified for the semi-finals of the competition with an impressive 7-0 aggregate win over Malaysia's Perak and Saad is hoping his side can put on another commanding display.
"The first leg is always important and hopefully we can have a good advantage because if we have a good result on Tuesday, then this will help us for the second leg which we will play away," he said.
"There is no doubt that we are now in a critical phase as we are in the top four of the competition and we must try our best in order to qualify to the final of the competition.
"We are looking forward to motivating the players so they perform as well as they did in the quarter-finals so we can achieve the dream of Safa and bring joy for Lebanese football.
"We studied how Dempo played against Al Ansar in the group stage when they came to Beirut. We will try to watch the video of that game in order to take an idea about their style."
Dempo go into the semi-final having lost their opening I-League match against JCT Mills, but coach Armando Colaco remains unconcerned with that defeat as his side aims to qualify for the final.
"We are confident after reaching this stage," he said. "No Indian team has reached the semi-finals of the competition before and that's why we are confident that we can go all the way to the final.
"We have collected some information about Safa as we watched tapes for their group stage matches. We will employ the correct strategy to play against them as they are not an extraordinarily strong team.
"A draw on Tuesday will be the result that we are looking for but we know that we can return home with three points which will give us more advantage as we will play the second leg at home."
Colaco revealed that the only injury concerns will be on goalkeeper Abhijit Mondal who had to be replaced in previous league match due to a thigh injury and has yet to fully recover.
Source:The AFC.com
