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Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Football Association’s (Safa) women football team will be taking on Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women FC in their opening Group A match of the inaugural AFC Women’s Champions League at the Hankou Culture and Sports Center in Wuhan, China today (Wednesday).

It will be a stern test for Justin Ganai’s girls against the South Korean outfit who had  won their domestic league 11 times and twice participated in the AFC Women’s Club competition  and reached the final last year.

Safa President Datuk Shahelmy Yahya who was present at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport to meet the 27-member squad before their departure  to Wuhan on Monday called on the players to give their best and show that they can compete.

“My advice to them is always  listen to the instructions given by the management and the head coach.

“They must maintain their discipline and display their fighting spirit to prove that they can compete not even in the  state, national but also in international level.

“I am very proud and happy to see our women’s team  win the national championship last year and qualify for the AFC women’s league.

“If they can qualify for the top eight (quarterfinals), that would be a very good achievement. So, together we give our support to the team and pray for their success,“ he said.

Justin Ganai had earlier said they have little time to prepare the team with the ongoing National Football League.

“We just completed four matches over 12 days in the Peninsula and  only have five days of preparation ,while Intan (Serah) and Steffi (Kaur) were only able to join us on Saturday as they were also involved in the league with their team  Kelana United,” he said.

He is also aware that the competition will be much tougher than the preliminary rounds but is confident the players will give their very best, especially with the addition of two more imports from Japan - Aoi Kizaki and Saki Ueno - to the team.

The team will next take on  Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC from China on October 6 before completing the group stage  with the final game against  UAE’s Abu Dhabi Country Club on October 9.

Only the top two finishers of each group and the two best third-placed sides will progress to the quarter-finals to be determined by a knockout stage draw  scheduled for March 22 and 23.