Dwellers D-day

THE Lae City Dwellers face Auckland City today in their second match of the Oceania Football Confederation’s Champions League.
With a win each under their belts, the clash will decide who finishes on top of Group C.
Lae City smashed Vanuatu’s Malampa Revivors 5-2 on Saturday, while the Kiwis managed a 2-1 win over Western United of the Solomon Islands, also over the weekend
The fixture is scheduled for 4pm (2pm PNG time) at Mangere Centre Park and with only the top finisher in the group advancing to the finals, the pressure will be on coach Peter Gunemba’s men to find a way to beat the home side.
After a dominant performance against the Revivors that saw Lae claim their first win in this competition, coach Gunemba said his side were capable of pulling off the upset and defeating the six-time OFC champions.
“They (Auckland) are the top team in the Oceania region and it’s going to be a big task but we will see how we go against them,” Gunemba said.
“We played them last year and have a fair idea of how they play so we have to adjust and come up with a plan to counter them.
“In the first-half, I’ll look at the strength of our team and I’ll decide from there what we should do, but at this point, I can tell you that we are not scared.
“We are prepared to play them,” he said.
“I’m actually feeling quite relaxed and I’m looking forward to the match.”
Auckland City coach Ramon Tribulietx is hoping to see an improvement after their unexpectedly close battle with Western United.
The Spaniard is well-aware of the depth of talent in the Lae squad after their 2-1 victory against the Dwellers in the 2016 OFC Champions League.
“We’ve seen them play before; we played them last year with most of the same players,” Tribulietx said.
“They’ve got three or four players up front that are one-on-one — very good, very fast, so we understand it is going to be very difficult.
“We understand from our last game that if we don’t switch on to 100 per cent, it can turn around nasty, so hopefully we’ve learned our lesson.”
“We expect the match to be anyone’s game but I hope we turn it in our favour.”