With the second round of AFC Champions League qualifying match underway at the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre Stadium, Ceres Negros FC arrived in Brisbane Sunday morning ahead of its match against A-League side Brisbane Roar on Tuesday.
The Philippine club advanced to this stage after surviving Myanmar National League champions Shan United, 4-3 (1-1 regulation) on penalty last week. Despite the win over Shan United, tomorrow’s match will still be another tough road for Ceres FC.
Ceres FC is playing as underdog in this match, as Brisbane Roars has been in the ACL since 2012. The winner of this face-off will earn a shot against China’s Tianjin Quanjian on January 30.
A club seeing action in this tournament can have a maximum of 30 players for the competition with a maximum of four foreign players – one of which must be from an AFC member nation.
On the goal comparison between the two clubs, Brisbane Roar FC saw over 1.5 goals in eight out of their last 10 games while Ceres FC has 1.5 goals in seven out of their last 10 outings.
A report on ceresfootball.com said that Ceres veteran Martin Steuble was one of the few players who took the longer trip via a Sydney en route to the Queensland capital.
“There’s no other way to get here but we’re happy that we made it. I think we are confident enough that we will have a good game,” the midfielder said.
Michael Casas was with the group who took the Darwin pit stop and the Ceres keeper was thankful for arriving safe after a turbulent first leg of the trip.
“It was a long flight and our first was tiring because the plane was small and full so everyone cannot sleep. We flew for four to five hours and then we gladly transferred from Darwin to Brisbane. That’s where we slept for three hours,” Casas added.
