Global, Ceres eye semis slot

MANILA, Philippines - Both fighting uphill battles, Philippine sides Global Cebu FC and Ceres Negros FC continue to be upbeat about their chances of hurdling their respective rivals in the AFC Cup Asean zone semifinals heading to this week’s second leg.

Global, which was forced to a 2-2 draw by Singapore club Home United in the first leg at Rizal Memorial, guns for a more favorable result when it plays away on May 30 at Jalan Besar Stadium to salvage the tie and move to the zonal finals.

On the other hand, Ceres seeks to overturn a 2-3 setback to Malaysian champ Johor Darul Ta’zim when they host the return leg on May 31 at Panaad Park and Stadium in Bacolod to continue its progress.

“We gotta be optimistic. We have one more game in Singapore, we need to get the guys together, focus and try to come away with a victory there,” said Global’s Darryl Roberts, whose team hopes to recover from that heartbreaking result last time, which saw it them botch a 2-1 lead and with 10 men concede a late goal to Home United.

Global also misses a key personnel in the second leg in suspended defender Amani Aguinaldo, who was sent off after scoring the team’s second goal in the previous match.

Because they grabbed two away goals in the previous loss over in Johor Bahru, the Busmen can still clinch the match-up with at least a 1-0 victory at home before ardent fans.

“I think we did a good job in the (first) game,” Ceres’ Spanish midfielder Bienvenido Maranon said. “I think also we deserved a little more for the chances we created. We’re okay with this result because maybe the semifinal is open. In Bacolod we can win for sure.”

“It will be a really good game. We have to win, they have to defend the result and I think for sure we can do a very good job in Bacolod in front of our supporters,” he added.