Vital Kitchee tie looming large for Warriors

Following their 3-1 defeat to Indonesian outfit Semen Padang last week, the eight-time Great Eastern-YEO's S.League will be looking to bounce back in Tuesday's clash with Hong Kong treble winners at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

And given how history has shown sides that lose their opening two games normally fail to make it out of the group, Selvaraj admits the game is a must-win clash for the Warriors.

"After losing our first game, I believe tomorrow [Tuesday] is very important," he said on Monday's pre-match press conference.

"We need to kick-start our campaign and it's important for us to get three points and stay alive.

"The objective is definitely to qualify [for the knockout round] so this is a very important game for us."

Warriors captain Daniel Bennett, who has been at the club since 2007, admits his side have not had the best of starts to 2013 but believes they are firmly on the rise.

"I think everybody knows we've just gone through a rough patch," he said.

"It's the start of the season and it's not always easy to gel but we feel we're getting much better playing as a team.

"It's going to help that we're playing at home; the conditions were difficult [in the first game against Semen Padang]. We weren't used to playing at three in the afternoon - we're not making excuses but it was really hot and the pitch was a little hard.

Hopefully this time the field and the weather will play in our favour."

Nonetheless, Kitchee coach Josep Gombau believes being the away team will not be too much of a disadvantage given his side have experience in Singapore, having taken on Tampines Rovers in last year's edition of the AFC Cup.

"We are familiar with Singapore having come to play here in the AFC Cup last season," he explained. "For us, it's not like going to a new country.

"We know the stadium and the facilities very well and this is important.

"I saw the Warriors play last week and I think that the conditions made it very difficult for them. We have a lot of respect for Warriors and I think they will be stronger than what I saw last week."

Gombau's charges exceeded all expectations last season as they reached the Round of 16 before being eliminated by Arema and the Spaniard admits their target this year is to improve on that performance.

"This is the second year running we are in the AFC Cup," he added. "Last season we reached the last 16 and what we want to do is to improve on that this season.

"It's just the start of the campaign now. It's important to get points on the board.

"For us, it's important to get at least a point and not lose. We are playing away and when we play in Hong Kong, that's when we'll have the advantage."

Kitchee captain Chu Siu Kei echoed his coach's sentiments and stressed they were looking to take things one step at a time.

"We want to play in the knockout round," he said.

"We are aware that away games are difficult in the AFC Cup and we're here to get a point and build up the team's experience - this is important for us.

"We're just going to take it game by game; obviously we want to win every match but we know playing away is very difficult."

Kitchee opened their campaign with a 3-0 win over Churchill Brothers of India.