Mariners take on Malaysian powerhouse in final ACLE home match

Central Coast Mariners are back at home on Tuesday evening (7pm) for the final time in this season’s AFC Champions League Elite.

The Mariners are unfortunately no longer able to progress from the group stage, following defeat to Japanese giants Yokohama F. Marinos in our previous ACLE fixture in December, but are not prepared to go out with a whimper with two matches remaining.

The fixtures are unforgiving in Asia’s Elite competition and our penultimate match sees a strong Johor Darul Ta’zim arrive on the Coast, still with hunger to progress in the competition and full of confidence from their domestic dominance.

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🔎 About Johor Darul Ta’zim

JDT have an incredible domestic record over recent years. Incredibly, they are unbeaten in almost four years in the Malaysian Super League, with their last league defeat coming in April 2021 to Terengganu.

They have been utterly dominant in Malaysian football the last decade, winning the last ten titles and completing the treble (Malaysia Super League, Malaysia Cup and Malaysia FA Cup) in the previous two campaigns.

In continental competition, JDT share the honour of winning the AFC Cup with the Mariners, triumphing in 2015. Their best showing in the Champions League is the Round of 16 in 2022, which they are on track to match again, sitting sixth in the group with two wins, two draws and two losses so far..

Both of Johor’s wins have come at home, whilst they have picked up just a point from three away matches, a draw away to Shanghai Port before losses on visits to Gwangju and Shandong Taishan, so the Mariners will he hoping to capitalise on their lacklustre away form.

Key players for the Malaysian side include Jese Rodriguez who is best known for his time at Real Madrid, where he won two UEFA Champions Leagues.

Jese is now part of a large Spanish contingent at JDT which includes midfielders Roque Mesa, Jonathan Vieira and Iker Undabarrena as well as defender Alvaro Gonzalez, all of whom boast experience in European top flights such as the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga.

The key man in front of goal is Brazilian number nine Bergson, who is just shy of the 100 goal mark for JDT in less than 80 appearances.

One to watch for JDT, despite not being one of the big-name players in the team, is 22-year-old Malaysian forward Arif Aiman who has been touted as ‘South-East Asia’s Next Big Bang’.

🗣 “We want six points”

Jacko spoke to the press alongside Trent Sainsbury on Monday afternoon, reiterating the team’s desire to finish strong in the competition.

Watch the full press conference via Central Coast Mariners on YouTube.

🌴 February football at Our Paradise

Following Tuesday’s big Champions League match, the Mariners have bye in the Isuzu UTE A-League before travelling to Japan to take on Kawasaki Frontale in our final ACLE match next Tuesday.

\Mark Jackson’s team then return home for two huge A-League home matches against fellow top-six hopefuls before the end of the month. On February 22nd we host Western Sydney Wanderers and February 28th sees a huge Double Header at Our Paradise.

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