Group Game 2 (Wed 1st Oct) - Build up

[harry51]

Group A
Inter Miami - Newcastle United
Al Alhay - Liverpool
Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield - Bournemouth
Club America - Botafogo
Bye: Manchester City

Group B
Los Angeles FC - Everton
Flamengo - Aston VIlla
Club Atlético Central Córdoba - Arsenal
Yokohama Mariners - Monterrey
Bye: Brentford

Sheets by 8 PM UK Time

[freeriderau]

Monterrey have the Yokohama in the Club World Cup. We look forward to playing our Japanese friends.

Our fans are cautioned that they must respect the goalkeeper, the whole world is watching, we must play in a respectful spirit!

[Nocky]

Al Ahly vs Liverpool
A re-run of last season's quarter final where we agoni9singly lost on penalties. Yasser Ibrahim had the opportunity to send us through from the spot but put his kick wide with Pandur beaten. A devastating blow that we were not able to recover from.

That was at Anfield and now we face the reds in Cairo so hopefully we can see a different outcome this time. Both sides kicked off their campaigns with a win - Liverpool overcoming Sarsfield at home 2-0 and us taking a superb 3-0 away win at Newcastle. A really positive start and hopefully one we can build on by avoiding defeat here.

Obviously that is going to be hard work - Liverpool are a top class team - the best around - and getting anything off them is a challenge. Both sides will be at full strength with no injury or suspensions issues.

This is probably a game where we would take a point and the away win last week enables us to have the breathing space to accept that result if needs be so it may impact how we play. If we can nick a win great but not losing would make this a very good start to the season

[Nocky]

Flamengo vs Aston Villa
After a good opening win over Argentinian side Cordoba last week we now travel to Brazil to take on more South American opposition in Flamengo. They themselves had a positive result away at Everton last week with a 2-2 draw so we know this won't be an easy one even with them being unmanaged.

Looking at the two squads it's a game we should be winning but we know football isn't as straight forward as that and we'll need to be careful to avoid any complacency going into this one.

Both sides are at full strength so will be picking their best teams and we can go into this one with confidence after a pleasing away win at the weekend. Our season ahs started well and we'll be looking to keep it going as long as possible