Bengaluru FC has arrived to Capital Male’ for the first leg of AFC Cup play-off against TC Sports.

Though India’s External Affair's ministry urged Bengaluru FC to cancel the visit to Maldives for their away AFC Cup play-off leg, they have arrived in Maldives this evening.

Despite the state of emergency in Maldives, the Maldives National Defense Force has assured Asian Football Confederation that they will maintain a peaceful and safe environment for the AFC Cup match and maintain the security measures for the visiting team from their arrival to their departure.

Some of the local politicians has raised voice to interrupt the match if the government did not meet their demands. In response TC Sports Club also has showed their concerns as it may affect the nation’s football and the respective fixture.

Football Association of Maldives is working closely with law enforcement bodies to ensure that everything related to this AFC Cup play-off fixture in home soil goes smoothly.

TC Sports Club is all set to face their biggest challenge since its birth. Not only for the club, TC Sports Club head coach also has spoken about this game as his biggest challenge in his career.

“For sure it is going to be  the toughest and biggest challenge that I am going to face in my career.” Coach Mohamed Nizam expressed his feeling prior to the game against giant Indian side.

Maldives won’t be a new venue to the visitors as Bengaluru FC has visited National Football Stadium twice in the last three years. And they have won every time they played in the Maldives home soil. In 2015 they visited and faced Maziya Sports & Recreation and won the match by 1-2 coming from the behind scoring two goals while Maziya was on lead by 1. After one year, again visited the capital Male’ and played against Green boys and won the match by 0-1 despite a solid  performance by the Maziya side.