The champion of Turkmenistan, the winner of the AFC Challenge League 2024/2025, the football club "Arkadag," will play its first match today in the group stage of the AFC Champions League Two 2025/2026. This will be their debut in the second most prestigious Asian club tournament. The sports team from the city of Arkadag will face FC "Andijon" from Uzbekistan.
On the eve of the group tournament start, the football club "Arkadag" registered Rovshen Mukhadov, who holds a PRO coaching category, to participate in the AFC Champions League Two as the head coach.
Here are the expectations for the upcoming match shared by the team coaches during a press conference held the day before, in response to questions from the "GA" correspondent.
Head coach of FC "Arkadag" Rovshen Mukhadov:
"Speaking about the opponent, we studied the strengths and weaknesses of the 'Andijon' team based on their performances in the Uzbekistan championship and developed a strategy aligned with the researched video materials for preparation.
The upcoming match is a big celebration for our numerous fans, and we will try to please them with a positive result. Last year, 'Arkadag,' as the leading professional football club of Turkmenistan, set a high benchmark for itself by winning the AFC Challenge League 2024/2025. I want to assure that this season we will continue to perform at the same level in the AFC Champions League Two, where there are no weak teams. It should be noted that this season includes the Saudi team 'Al-Nassr,' which has one of the most titled footballers in the world, European champion and five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo.
We know there will be no easy game against the Uzbek team; however, we will do everything possible to win. The 'Arkadag' team is almost 100 percent functionally ready. Possibly, correct substitutions will play a key role in the match against 'Andijon.' Overall, we are confident in our strength."
Head coach of FC "Andijon" Maksim Shatskikh:
"All four teams have the same goal – to advance to the playoffs of the AFC Champions League Two. In the game against the champion of Turkmenistan, we will try to continue moving toward this goal. The club 'Arkadag' is a new team on the Asian football scene, which already represents a very cohesive and combat-ready collective.
As part of the preparation for the match, we gathered maximum information about the opponent, analyzing Arkadag’s previous games, including those in the AFC Challenge League. We also understand that we will be playing against footballers most of whom are part of the Turkmenistan national team, so we take the opponent quite seriously.
We had enough time to prepare for the first game of the group stage, which, I hope, will be sharp, interesting, quality, and played at good speeds. We will strive for such a game. The emotional mood of 'Andijon' is positive. We came to Turkmenistan for a positive result and will fight for it."
As we see, both teams are taking the match seriously. A fierce fight awaits for the first points in the group. Let us wish the champion of Turkmenistan a successful game in the first international match of the new season.
The match between "Arkadag" and "Andijon" will start at 18:45 at the stadium in the city of Arkadag.
