Tier 1 cham­pi­ons of the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League, De­fence Force, face a mon­ster clash at home against the de­throned cham­pi­ons AC Port of Spain when the ac­tion in the round of 16 of the First Cit­i­zens Cup con­tin­ues Wednes­day at the De­fence Force Re­serve Ground in Ch­aguara­mas from 8 pm.

But AC Port of Spain coach Walt Nor­ie­ga im­me­di­ate­ly filed a com­plaint about the use of the De­fence Force Re­serve Ground, the field where the cham­pi­ons train.

Nor­ie­ga is con­tend­ing that the ground will give the Army/Coast Guard/Civil­ian-Com­bi­na­tion team an un­fair ad­van­tage, not­ing that a game of this mag­ni­tude should have been played at one of the sta­di­um grounds.

Nor­ie­ga, whose team won the league last year but was se­vere­ly weak­ened when they lost a few key play­ers to over­seas in­ter­ests, such as mid­field­ers Michel Poon Angeron, Du­ane Muck­ette and Che Ben­ny, said their re­quest for the match to be played at a neu­tral venue fell on deaf ears.

The game will be an up­hill task for AC Port-of-Spain, which is known pop­u­lar­ly as ‘The Cap­i­tal City Boyz’, Nor­ie­ga ad­mit­ted, but he al­so said that in a knock­out game, any­thing can hap­pen. The teams met twice dur­ing the sea­son, with the De­fence Force win­ning the first match 6-3 and the oth­er game end­ing in a 1-1 tie.

De­fence Force is al­so the de­fend­ing FCB Cup cham­pi­ons af­ter beat­ing Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers in the fi­nal 5-3 at the Diego Mar­tin Sports Com­plex. Nor­ie­ga’s team al­so faces an up­hill task to qual­i­fy as one of the top three teams for the Con­ca­caf Caribbean Cup or Con­ca­caf Caribbean Shield.

“Our match­es against De­fence Force are al­ways good, in­tense bat­tles, and I ex­pect the same tonight. They de­throne us as league cham­pi­ons, so it would be good to get any kind of re­prieve if we could get them out of the tour­na­ment. So, yes, it would be a dif­fi­cult task, but as I said be­fore, foot­ball is played on the day, and in a knock­out match, the game can go in any di­rec­tion,” Nor­ie­ga ex­plained.

Army coach Den­sill Theobald is ea­ger to add more ti­tles to their cab­i­net, telling Guardian Me­dia re­cent­ly that he wants to fol­low the win­ning trend of the De­fence Force team of the past.

De­spite be­ing as­sured of a spot in the Con­ca­caf Caribbean Cup, Theobald said he would not be tak­ing any team for grant­ed.

That match will be the fea­ture clash of a dou­ble­head­er at the Ch­aguara­mas field and will fol­low an­oth­er be­tween the De­fence Force Tier 2 team and Tier 1 cam­paign­ers San Juan Jabloteh to be played at 6 pm.

The San Juan men are fourth on the 12-team Tier 1 stand­ings with 35 points, and like AC Port-of-Spain, they are fight­ing to se­cure a place in the Con­ca­caf Caribbean Cup or Shield. How­ev­er, af­ter los­ing in­flu­en­tial young strik­er Der­rel ‘Zoom Zoom’ Gar­cia, who has gone on tri­als abroad, the Mar­vin Gor­don-coached team has been on the mend.

They could face a tricky De­fence Force Tier 2 team who are well at the top of the stand­ing in Group 2 and may pose a greater op­po­si­tion than many may ex­pect.

Wednes­day's match­es

San Juan Jabloteh vs De­fence Force FC, De­fence Force Re­serve Ground, 6 pm

AC PoS vs De­fence Force Elite, De­fence Force Re­serve Ground, 8 pm

Cale­do­nia AIA vs Prison Ser­vice FC, Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, 6 pm

Mis­cel­la­neous Po­lice vs MIC Cen­tral FC Re­boot, Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, 8 pm

San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants vs UTT Tier 2, Ma­haica Oval, 6 pm

Point Fortin Civic vs Club San­do FC, Ma­haica Oval, 8 pm

Sideys Sports Club vs PVDM Utd, La Hor­quet­ta Recre­ation Ground, 6 pm

Prison Ser­vice Ig­nite vs MIC Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed, La Hor­quet­ta Recre­ation Ground, 8 pm