Mumbai: With a place in the Hero Super Cup 2019 final on the line, Chennai City FC and FC Goa will face off in the first semi-final at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Chennai knocked out last year’s champions Bengaluru FC in the quarter-finals, while Goa overcame a tough challenge from fellow Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) team Jamshedpur FC to reach the last four of the championship.
“We will have a tough game against FC Goa. One thing is for sure that if I was FC Goa, I would want to do something because we lost in the Hero ISL final and came second in the league. Normally when you finish second in the league, you have that added desire to win a Cup competition. They have unfinished business. That’s what happened to Bengaluru last year. They lost the league to Chennaiyin but won the Hero Super Cup. We have to be very careful, ” said Chennai City head coach Akbar Nawas on the eve of the match.
Talking about his team and rivals, he said, “There are certain similarities. Goa like to build from the back but there are a lot of dissimilarities as well. I don’t want to talk about these because these are very technical. I will discuss that with my technical team.”
Commenting on the performance of his Indian defenders in the previous match against Bengaluru, Nawas said, “I think the Indian defenders did well against Bengaluru. They did some things well and prevented Bengaluru from getting goal scoring chances. They also didn’t do some things wrong but got away with that. We have to fix this. The question is if they make the same mistakes and get away with it again. We will have to wait and see.”
“We are facing the current champions of the Hero I-League. We are also facing the team that has defeated Bengaluru, who are the current Hero ISL champions. They are playing good football. They have a few Spanish players. It is a team that is very balanced in every position. They are very well organised. There are similarities in the way we play. Tomorrow, the fans will be able to see a very great game,” said Goa’s, head coach Sergio Lobera.
With Edu Bedia missing the tie through suspension, the Spaniard will have to find a solution to ensure the Spanish playmaker’s absence doesn’t become a handicap for his team. “It is true that Edu Bedia is an important player for us. But he is missing. It will be one weakness for us. But tomorrow, we will put up a team that will be competitive enough to approach the game and try to reach the final,” he affirmed.
