Chennai: Hero Indian Super League (ISL) action returns to the city of Chennai for the very first time this season as Chennaiyin FC take on Mumbai City FC in their first home game of the season.
The fans of Hero ISL Season 4 champions would hope for a better performance from their team after a terrible campaign last time around which saw them finish rock-bottom.
“First game in front of the fans and obviously our players want to make an impression. I don’t care how we win, we need to get three points. I’d be delighted if we can take maximum points from the next two games,” said head coach John Gregory.
Chennaiyin have not had the best of starts, however. They started with a 0-3 away defeat to FC Goa where their defence looked all at sea against a brilliant attack. Centre-backs Lucian Goian and Eli Sabia didn’t have the best of outings and could not keep Ferran Corominas and co. at bay. But the Romanian centre-back should be pumped to face his former side with whom he spent two seasons.
Gregory, who was instrumental in Chennaiyin FC’s previous title triumph in Season 4 and also oversaw their worst performance last season, needs to arrest the slide and break the rut as soon as possible. Interestingly, he chose to drop Anirudh Thapa on the bench for their opening game but did bring him on at the start of the second half. Gregory is expected to make some changes to his team to counter the threat of Mumbai.
“In ISL, the matches come quick and you have to pick up results quickly. New players have to bed in very quickly. I made three changes in Goa and the boys that came on did very well and I might make one or two changes against Mumbai,” he said.
-- Goa meet Bengaluru --
All eyes will be at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium as defending champions Bengaluru FC resume hostilities with the team they vanquished after a titanic tussle in last year’s final - FC Goa today.
