PANAJI: Churchill Brothers will take on Al Hilal in their second Group B AFC Cup encounter on Wednesday. The national champions are in an unfamiliar territory and face the Yemeni club away at the Ali Mohsen Al-Muraisi Stadium in Yemen.  

Churchill will have to raise their game to go past the hosts as the visitors’ form lately has been very inconsistent. Churchill almost scraped to a win against defending champions Kuwait SC at home but were forced to share points conceding an injury time equaliser in their opening encounter of the AFC Cup. But next, Churchill faced an embarrassing 4-2 loss at the hands of local rivals Dempo SC that saw them fall behind in the title race for the I-League.
But given the unpredictability of their game, they have every chance of pulling off an upset in the Wednesday’s away game. Both sides drew 2-2 with Kuwait SC in their respective opening games and with just three teams in the group, a win for either side would place them on top of Group B — a strong position to qualify for the next stage of the tournament. 
Churchill will hope that their Nigerian duo of Odafe Okolie and Ogba Kalu Nanna do the trick once again to pocket their first win. But their biggest worry is their suspect defenceline which hasn’t been in best of form and they will have to lift their performance to stop the Yemeni league champions.
Churchill coach Carlos Perreira expects a better showing from his boys after a disappointing outing against Dempo. Pereira acknowledged that the Yemen match would be tough for his side, who landed in Yemen on Monday after a long tiring journey. 
“Our group in the AFC Cup is very tricky since we have two other teams only. Al Hilal gave Kuwait SC a hard time at their ground and this is something that we must never forget,” the Brazilian commented on the game at hand. “If we get a win in Yemen, then we will have a great chance of qualifying for the next stage.”
Pereira said his team’s form has been “confusing”. He admitted he was perplexed by the contrast in performances of his side in the last two games. “We had a great game against Kuwait SC at home but our next match in the league was completely the opposite,” said Pereira. “This inconsistency in performances has been confusing for us.”