AFC Champions League: Mumbai City FC Face Iran's Nassaji Mazandaran in Pune

Mumbai City FC are one sleep away before they kick off a landmark 2023-24 season. On the cusp of embarking on yet another historic AFC Champions League campaign, Mumbai City FC Head Coach Des Buckingham and goalkeeper Phurba Lachenpa attended a pre-match press conference ahead of their first Group D fixture against the Iranian Hazfi Cup Champions. So, I think if we can combine those together and if we prepare well, we’ll put ourselves in the strongest position we can, but it’s the top level of Asian club competition so we must be on top of our game to make sure we get everything out of every game.” Coach Des and Phurba break down the challenges ahead of our opening clash in the #ACL against FC Nassaji Mazandaran tomorrow ⚔️Catch the full pre-match press conference ⤵️#IslandersInAsia #MumbaiCity #AamchiCity @DesBuckingham — Mumbai City FC September 17, 2023 The Islanders’ number 1, Phurba Lachenpa, expressed his thoughts ahead of the game with elation. So, it’s an exciting and good opportunity for us to showcase what we can do as a team.” Lachenpa went on to talk about the importance of having experience of playing in the AFC Champions League as he highlighted the challenges the team might face this time around, he said, “It’s always challenging for us to do it because we are a top club, and we are not representing only the city of Mumbai, we are representing India as a whole. There’s always pressure to do well but it’s always up to us, on our mentality, how we deal with it, and how we prepare against top teams in this competition, so yeah, it depends on our mentality, how we take it and how we take all these challenges and competition.” Buckingham concluded the press conference by talking about the importance of Mumbai City FC’s presence in the AFC Champions League for Indian football, he said, “I think it’s a wonderful thing.