Match facts
Bengaluru FC v Dhaka Abahani
Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru, 7 pm onwards
The big picture
Bengaluru FC will be looking to press home the advantage from two early wins that have put them in pole position in Group E of the AFC Cup. In 2016, BFC became the first Indian club to reach the final of the continental tournament. This year, wins over Mohun Bagan at home and Maziya of Maldives away have given them a head start at finishing in first position in the four-team group -- the competition format will see only the group winner advance to the inter-zonal play-off semi-finals. Albert Roca's men will go into Tuesday's match without the pressure of competing for the I-League, and in fact will carry some winning form from the league, where they have notched up impressive wins over Aizawl FC and Shillong Lajong in their recent games.
Dhaka Abahani coach Drago Mamic would realise that a defeat on Tuesday could effectively kill off all their chances of advancing to the next stages of the AFC Cup. Abahani haven't been helped by a skewed domestic football calendar -- the two matches of the AFC Cup thus far, both of which were lost by two-goal margins to Maziya and Mohun Bagan, respectively, are the only competitive games the team has played in this calendar year. They showed discipline and spunk against Bagan in their away match, though, employing a five-man defence and hitting Bagan with swift counter-attacks. They led 1-0 till the first minute of added time in the first half, and would be looking to replicate a similar start against Bengaluru.
Form guide (last five matches, most recent first)
Bengaluru FC WWWLW
Dhaka Abahani LLWWW
In the spotlight
There's no player in Indian football who likes the big stage better than Sunil Chhetri, and the Bengaluru marksman should continue to be the main threat to the Dhaka Abahani defence. Chhetri has been in good goal-scoring form in recent weeks, starting with the winner in the 2-1 win over Mohun Bagan in both clubs' AFC Cup opener five weeks ago in Bengaluru. He took his scoring boots along to Cambodia and Myanmar, scoring goals in both countries, before Roca rested him for the 3-0 defeat away to Bagan on April 1 that effectively ended the I-League champions' reign. Chhetri scored against Lajong over the weekend, and would look to continue his form against the Bangladesh league champions.
When Dhaka Abahani pushed Mohun Bagan to the limit, especially in the first half of their AFC Cup clash in Kolkata on April 4, one player who stood out for his work rate was defender Rayhan Hasan. Hasan, 22, is a regular international for the Bangladesh national team, where he typically plays as centre-back or a wing-back, but coach Mamic employed Hasan against Bagan as a holding midfielder with a license to join in attack. He was often seen in advanced positions, winning balls and setting up attacking players like goalscorer Jonathan Brown and Emeka Darlington with short passes. Bengaluru will do well to try and keep Hasan, also a specialist with long throws, pegged back in the Abahani side of the field.
Stats and trivia
• This will be the first time that Bengaluru FC will be up against Bangaldeshi opposition in an AFC competition. Bangladesh will become the tenth country to have come against Bengaluru in their third year of competing in Asia, not counting India's Mohun Bagan among their opponents.
• Dhaka Abahani did the league and cup double in Bangladesh in 2016, winning the league without losing a single of their 22 matches. In fact, their only defeat in domestic competition through the year was in the group stages of the Federation Cup, when Sheikh Moni Arambagh beat them 1-0. Abahani faced them again in the final, winning it 1-0 this time around.
• Bengaluru FC might be out of the race for the I-League title, but they have two of the top Indian goal scorers in the league for the 2016-17 season. CK Vineeth's six goals include a hat-trick against Mumbai FC, also at the Kanteerava Stadium, while Sunil Chhetri's five goals place him in joint-second place among Indians alongside Mohun Bagan's Jeje Lalpekhlua.
• Dhaka Abahani coach Drago Mamic has an experience of having coached in India in the past, having spent a three-month spell in the 2010-11 season with Churchill Brothers. The biggest win they had during his stint with the Goan club was winning the IFA Shield that season, where they beat Mohun Bagan in the final in Kolkata.