Eagles, Thimpu City gearing up for AFC Qualifiers confrontation

14 teams competing in the 2021 AFC Cup have been matched to play in the qualifying round, after being distributed into five groups based on geographical location. Club Eagles will represent Maldives in the South Asia Group for the qualifiers, while reigning DDPL champions Maziya Sports and Recreation Club have secured a straight line into the group stage for the 2021 AFC Cup. Maziya will be joined in the Group Stage by India's Mohun Bagan FC and Bangladeshi champions Bashundhara Kings.

With the team that dominates qualifying matches moving forward to claim the last remaining spot in the group stage, Club Eagles, who closed last season's DDPL in second place, will be competing to claim that spot against India's Bengaluru FC, Abhani Limited Dhaka representing Bangladesh, Nepal's Army Club, Sri Lanka's Police FC and Thimpu City FC from Bhutan.

While the draw for the AFC Cup qualifiers were held on Wednesday, the match between Club Eagles and Thimpu City is scheduled for 7 April 2021. If Eagles can confirm a victory in the match, they will have to face Bangladesh's Dhaka Abhani team in the second round of qualifiers. In the event that Eagles win in preliminary round 2, they will most likely have to face India's Bengaluru FC in the play-offs which follow.

The group stage matches for this year's AFFC Cup are set to be centralized, with matches being conducted across one leg as opposed to two like previous years. The current schedule for the 2021 AFC Cup will see the South Asian group preliminaries, play-offs and group stages matches conducted between 14 and 20 May.