Manang Marshyangdi Club opened their Group ‘E’ AFC Cup campaign with a narrow 1-0 loss to Abahani Limited Dhaka at the ANFA Complex in Satdobato on Wednesday.

The 28th minute header goal from Afghani defender Masih Saighani separated the two teams in the second-tier club competition of Asia. The Bangladesh Premier League champions secured all three points in the group that also include India’s I-League champions Minerva Punjab and Indian Super League runners-up Chennaiyin FC. Chenniyan are scheduled to host Minerva late on Sunday in Ahmedabad. Only the group winners will qualify for the inter-zone playoff semi-finals. MMC are scheduled to visit Chennaiyin in their next fixture on April 3.

MMC, representing Nepal for the first time in the tournament organised by Asian Football Confederation, were sluggish throughout the game played on their own backyards. MMC appeared sharp early on and even created two scoring chances within the first 10 minutes but they gradually lost grip as the game wore on.

“The pace of the team got slow after 20 minutes due to exhaustion. They lacked endurance required for the 90 minutes,” MMC coach Chhiring Lopsang Gurung said. He blamed short preparations as the reason for his team’s lacklustre display. Almost a dozen of MMC players were under national team duties, some for international friendly against Kuwait on March 21 and 25 and others for the AFC U-23 Championship Qualifier on March 22-26.

MMC drew Abahani goalkeeper Md Sohel into action early in the fifth minute as the skipper made a diving attempt to deny midfielder Bishal Rai’s low drive from the area. Sujal Shrestha then ended up shooting straight at the grateful hands of Sohel in the 10th minute instead of passing it to Nigerian forward Olawale Afeez. Afeez paired with compatriot Adelaja Somide upfront but the duo hardly made any impact.

Abahani struck in the 28th minute as unmarked Masih headed home a cross from Rubel Miya. Miya cleverly supplied a back pass to Waly Faisal from a corner before he laid the for Masih to score. The closest MMC came to scoring was when Anjan Bista headed off target on Biraj Maharjan cross in the 36th minute.

Bolstered by four foreign recruits, Abahani almost doubled their lead in the first half stoppage time when Haitian forward Kervens Belfort’s tap in went just wide. Nepali winger Anjan Bista also tapped above bar from the edge of zone in the 65th minute. Nepal were unlucky in the 75th when Abahani custodian Sohel comfortably gathered a Olawale shot.

MMC survived another scare in the 77th minutes when Brazilian striker Sunday Chizoba hit the upright in one-on-one with MMC goalkeeper Bishal Shrestha. He also had a chance to score in the rebound but the ball went agonisingly just whiskers away from the post. Despite the defeat, MMC coach Gurung still harbours hope of qualifying to the next stage with five more matches yet to play. “The boys gave their best. We need to improve on scoring department,” said Lopsang, who also praised the opponents. “They deserved the victory and were physically superior,” he said.

Abahani’s Portuguese coach Mario Lemos was happy to have achieved his goal. “We arrived here for three points and we got that,” said Lemos adding his team had to battle really hard to earn it however. He also heaped praise of midfielder Heman Gurung and Bishal Rai’s performance. Masih praised MMC game saying: “Nepal (MMC) troubled us in the early stages but we made full use of our height advantage to score,” he said.