The South and East Zonal winners face off in the first leg at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on Wednesday and the Abahani players are raring to continue from where they left off in the group stage.

The six-time Bangladesh Premier League champions advanced with a record of four wins, one draw and one defeat to reach their first AFC Cup Inter-Zone Semi-final and striker Nabib Newaj Ziban said this has whetted their appetite for more success.

The two teams go head-to-head in the first leg at Dhaka's Bangabandhu National Stadium on Wednesday with head coach Mario Lemos saying six-time Bangladesh Premier League champions Abahani determined to continue their fairy-tale run in the AFC Cup.

It is the first time a club from Bangladesh has progressed to the AFC Cup's Inter-Zone Semi-finals but Lemos said they are not yet satisfied.

Ahead to the two match-ups, the-AFC.com has selected four players who have the potential to light up the ties and help guide their sides into the Inter-Zone Final.

A first time meeting for these champions of the ASEAN and Central Zones, with Hanoi FC last in the knockout stages of the tournament in 2014 while Altyn Asyr lost out to Air Force Club of Iraq in the 2018 final.

The last time the sides from Southeast Asia and Central Asia met in the Inter-Zone semi-finals was the 2017 edition, when FC Istiklol of Tajikistan comprehensively defeated Filipino club Ceres Negros 5-1 on aggregate.

For the second successive campaign, Altyn Asyr were crowned Central Asian Zonal Champions after again pipping Tajikistan’s FC Istiklol in their final Group D game.

The Ashgabat team are next tasked with Hanoi FC in the Inter-Zone Semi-finals with the first leg against the ASEAN Zonal Champions taking place in the Vietnamese capital on Tuesday.

The clashes see ASEAN kings Hanoi FC of Vietnam take on Central Zonal champions Altyn Asyr of Turkmenistan and South Zonal champions Abahani Limited Dhaka go up against their East Zone counterparts 4.25 SC of DPR Korea over two legs.

The reward for the winners is a place in the Inter-Zone Final, meaning the stakes are high ahead of the first legs on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The games see Vietnam’s Hanoi FC up against Turkmenistan’s Altyn Asyr and Abahani Limited Dhaka of Bangladesh face DPR Korea’s 4.25 SC as the Zonal champions from the ASEAN, Central, South and East square off. 

With this Inter-Zone format only in its third year since the AFC Cup was remodelled, the-AFC.com looks back at the four previous match-ups from this stage of the Continental competition.