BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IT will be an exciting clash between two of the Leeward Islands top football nations - St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda - tomorrow evening (Mar. 29) at the Warner Park Cricket Stadium to see which of the two teams will top Group 1 of the Caribbean Cup.
This match comes in the wake of St. Kitts and Nevis easily defeating Aruba 2-0 in Oranjestad on Saturday (Mar.26).
The match, which saw Harrison Panayiotou breaking the deadlock in the 38th minute and Romaine Sawyers in the 44th, was enough to push team St. Kitts and Nevis to the top of Group 1.
With the top two nations from each of the seven three-team first round groups progress, Antigua also qualified since they edged Aruba 2-1 at the Sir Vivian Richards Football Stadium on Saturday, last.
That win has set up an intriguing final showdown between the arch rivals, who have played against each other some 22 times.
The Sugar Boys will be looking to overturn a losing record that they have against their neighbours, with statistics showing the home team recording 8 wins, 4 draws and 10 defeats.
But St. Kitts and Nevis will be the more positive of the two teams, knowing that they created history in recent times when they defeated European team Andorra to register their first victory on that continent and before returning home to defeat Bermuda in an international friendly last month.
Meanwhile, Antigua and Barbuda will be looking to boost their confidence here in Basseterre as they have won three of their last five encounters, including crashing out of the World Cup Qualifiers 2-1 at the feet of Guatemala in September.
They won their opening leg of their second round encounter 1-0 before going down 2-nil to bow out. St. Kitts and Nevis was also booted from the World Cup Qualifiers in the second round when they lost to El Salvador.
They drew their opening encounter in St. Kitts 2-2, before being hammered 4-1 in San Salvador.
The first whistle blows off at 8:00 p.m. and a large crowd is expected to converge for the encounter, as Atiba Harris will be marshalling his troops to battle.
