Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) champions Bashundhara Kings will play Indian Super League side Mohun Bagan Super Giants of Kolkata in a vital Group D match of the AFC Cup Football on Tuesday evening.

The key match between the two football giants of Dhaka and Kolkata will begin at 8:00 pm at the Bashundhara Kings Arena in the capital.

Kolkata Mohun Bagan Club topped the four-team Group D list with an unbeaten score, securing seven points from three matches with two wins and a draw, while Bashundhara Kings followed the leader, collecting four points from three matches with one win, one draw, and one defeat.

The two teams have played each other on three occasions since their first meeting in Male in August 2021, where Mohun Bagan Club were in the upper hand with one win and two draws against the Kings and two draws and a defeat.

Mohun Bagan Club played a 1-1 draw with the Kings in the AFC Cup in Male in August 2021, outplayed the Kings 4-0 in the AFC Cup in Kolkata in May 2022, and drew 2-2 also in the AFC Cup match at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, on October 24, 2023.

In the ongoing AFC Cup,Kolkata Mohun Bagan Club dropped their first points in their previous match, a 2-2 draw with the Bashundhara Kings at their home venue of Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, on October 24.

Meanwhile, in a pre-match press conference at the conference room of Bashundhara Kings Arena on Monday, both teams expressed their optimism about winning the match by playing entertaining football.

Head coach of the Kings, Oscar Bruzon, captain Robson Robinho, head coach of Mohun Bagan Club, Juan Fernando, and captain Subhasish Bose spoke on the occasion.

Both teams also made their final practices at the match venue, Bashundhara Kings Arena, here Monday evening.

Bashundhara Kings, which were placed in four-team Group D of the AFC Cup with Odisha FC, Mohun Bagan Club of India, and Maziya SRC of the Maldives, had already played three matches.

The Kings beat Odisha FC by 3-2 goals in their home match in Dhaka and lost to Maziya in their away match by 1-3 goals in Male, apart from a 2-2 draw with Mohun Bagan Club in Odisha.

Each of the Group D teams of the AFC Cup 2023–24, a 2nd-tier Asian Continental Club Football Competition after the AFC Champions League, will play the other three teams in a home-and-away round-robin format.

Later, the table-toppers will progress to the AFC Cup inter-zone play-off semi-finals.