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Titu wants goals from strikers

Sports Reporter
Ahead of Wednesday's AFC Cup fixture against visiting New Radiant SC, Abahani coach Saiful Bari Titu urged his Nigerian striking duo to capitalise on the scoring opportunities for a good start to the competition.
It is the second appearance for the six-time Bangladesh Premier League champions, who last year failed to get past the group stages. The Sky Blues had previously played five times in the now-defunct AFC President's Cup, but they were eliminated from the group stages in all those occasions.
Scoring in international matches has always been a concern for both Bangladesh national team and club teams. But Abahani coach believes if his Nigerian striking duo of Emeka Darlington and Sunday Chizoba can cash in on the scoring opportunities against New Radiant, they can make a winning start. The two Nigerians in question have scored a total of 16 goals in the premier league last season.
"Everything depends on the forwards. Whether the national team or club teams, the failure to score goals has always put us behind. In the match between Saif SC and TC Sports Club, Saif created a lot of scoring chances but could not covert any of those to eventually lose the game. Our local players generally create scoring chances but the foreign strikers will have to do their task. As it is a home match, we have worked on the physical and mental
aspects for winning the match," Titu said yesterday afternoon as his charges watched the practice session of New Radiant SC at the Abahani ground in Dhanmondi.
Abahani have been preparing for the AFC Cup since February 12 even though the foreign players joined the training camp on the third week of last month.
For the first time, the club will avail the opportunity of fielding all four foreign players and they are expected to be instrumental, but Titu was not happy with the fitness of Emeka. However, he heaped praise on Japanese attacking midfielder Seiya Kojima. Titu will miss the services of midfielder Emon Babu in the first two matches of the competition due to hamstringinjury.
"This time Abahani team are more balanced due to the inclusion of four foreign players as well as matured local players. They have had good preparation compared to the last season as they have just finished the domestic season. More importantly Abahani played the whole season with confidence and I am hopeful that confidence will be carried forward," explained the former national footballer, who will guide the Dhanmondi giants for the first time.
The men in Sky Blues have been shown highlights of the matches between New Radiant SC and Maziya S&RC and New Radiant SC and TC Sports of the ongoing Male League. The coach singled out some strong and weak points of the visitors, who are believed to be good on counterattack and solid in defence