KUALA NERUS, Sept 19 — Terengganu FC (TFC) head coach Tomislav Steinbruckner is confident that his men can spring a surprise against Australia’s Central Coast Mariners in their opening Group G match of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup competition tomorrow.

He believes that the Turtles, who will be playing on home ground at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium here, are on the right track to do just that against the Australian side coached by Abbas Saad, who is no stranger to the Malaysia League (M-League).

Steinbruckner, fondly known as Tomi, said TFC are well-prepared, having drawn up the best strategy, as they seek to maintain their unbeaten run in the last three months, including in the Super League and Malaysia Cup.

"The last game we lost (was) to JDT (Johor Darul Ta’zim)... that was more than three months ago and I am proud of it. So, yes it is a good momentum for our team... the players’ confidence is also at a high level.

"Every match we play presents a tough challenge. But we will try our best to get a 100 per cent good result against them (Central Coast Mariners),” he said at the 2023 AFC Cup pre-match press conference here today.

Steinbruckner, however, is concerned that the tight M-League schedule could ruin his plans as his players would be fatigued and prone to injuries.

As such, he reminded his men to tread cautiously in tomorrow’s game since their opponents are taller and bigger in size.

Abbas, who used to play for Johor and Singapore in the Malaysian League in the 1990s, said Central Coast Mariners, who are based in Gosford, have been preparing for the AFC Cup tournament for the past two months.

He even revealed that his coaches have studied TFC’s style of play to identify their weaknesses and strengths ahead of their game tomorrow.

"Obviously, Terengganu are a good team and deserve to be in the AFC Cup. But we are a good team too... We finished second in our league last year and won the Cup competition at the end.

"So, we are looking forward to the challenge. It won’t be easy, but we don’t fear anybody. We are in this competition to win it and we will fight for it,” he said.

Besides TFC and Central Coast Mariners, the other two clubs drawn in Group G are Stallion Laguna FC of the Philippines and Bali United of Indonesia. — Bernama