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Albirex and Philippine giants Global do battle for spot in Singapore Cup final

Albirex Niigata (S) will be looking to move one step closer to winning the treble when they take on Philippine outfit Global FC in the semifinals of the RHB Singapore Cup.

The first leg of the last-four clash takes place on Monday at the Jalan Besar Stadium, with the return encounter scheduled three days later at the Jurong East Stadium.

Albirex coach Tatsuyuki Okuyama has made no secret of his side's ambitions for this season, having reiterated on several occasions that their goal is to win every trophy Singapore football has to offer.

The first part of the job was completed in July when they beat Balestier Khalsa 2-1 to win the TNP League Cup, while they remain in with a shout of being crowned Great Eastern Yeo's S.League champions for the first time in their history, despite trailing league leaders Brunei DPMM FC by seven points.

However, the immediate task for now will be to gain the upper hand over Global when they lock horns on Monday.

Okuyama will once again be looking towards Atsushi Kawata and Rion Taki to fire them to victory, as the duo have combined for 17 of the White Swans' 35 goals in all competition so far this season.

But key to their good performances in 2015 has also been the stingy defence which has conceded just 11 times in 19 league outings, with goalkeeper Yosuke Nozawa, centre-back Kento Fujihara and left-back Itsuki Yamada in excellent form.

Albirex did not exactly have the best of outings in the Preliminary Round when they took on Cambodian outfit Svay Rieng, one of the other three invited teams, and only claimed a narrow 2-1 triumph.

Still, they did show improvement in last month's quarterfinals as they cruised to an impressive 5-1 aggregate win over last year's champions Balestier.

Nonetheless, Global will have plenty of reason to be optimistic given they have already seen of two S.League sides so far in the tournament.

They showed excellent resolve in the Preliminary Round to come from behind and beat Hougang United 2-1, with Jason de Jong netting a 102nd-minute winner after Norio Suzuki had cancelled out the Cheetahs' halftime lead.

The odds were stacked against them once more as they were beaten 1-0 in the first leg of last month's quarter-final clash against Geylang.

Yet, they remarkably went on to progress to the last four 5-1 on aggregate after an inspirational hat-trick by Mark Hartmann helped them to a 4-1 triumph in the return encounter at the Bedok Stadium.

Despite entering Monday's clash as underdogs, Leigh Manson's charges do have plenty of firepower with Hartmann and Misagh Bahadoran leading the line, while the likes of Jason de Jong, Matthew Hartmann and Yu Hoshide provide plenty of bite and guile in the middle of the park.

Global FC Probable Lineup: Patrick Deyto, Jerry Barbaso, Norio Suzuki, Masaki Yanagawa, Daisuke Sato, Yu Hoshide, Paolo Salenga, Jason de Jong, Matt Hartmann, Misagh Bahadoran, Mark Hartmann

Albirex Niigata (S) Probable Lineup: Yosuke Nozawa, Mikiya Yamada, Takahiro Saito, Kento Fujihara, Itsuki Yamada, Hikaru Mizuno, Shun Inaba, Fumiya Kogure, Atsushi Kawata, Rion Taki, Rui Kumada