A buoyant Chennai City FC welcome Churchill Brothers FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Chennai for the round-nine clash of the Hero I-League tomorrow (February 14, 2017)
Chennai City, after winning their previous game against Mumbai FC, have risen up from the bottom of the table to the seventh spot in the league while their opponents, who have had torrid away fixtures of late find themselves rooted to the bottom of the table.
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Speaking to the press ahead of the game, Chennai City coach V Soundararajan asserted that he has no plans to disturb the winning combination as they look to continue their climb up the table.
“We will try to win this game. I’m not going to disturb the winning combination. I thought Regin was not up to the mark in the previous game but I’m not going to drop him. Hopefully, he will perform better in this game,” he said.
But he did admit that the South Indian side was not up to the mark against Mumbai and felt that it was only a piece of individual brilliance by his striker Charles de Souza that helped them get three vital points.
“We got the goal against Mumbai only because of Charles’ individual brilliance. Hopefully, we can execute our plans better for this game,” he added.
“I want to use Marcos Vinicius as a second-half substitute for tomorrow’s game. I think we have an advantage that this game has come right on the heels of an uplifting win,” he analysed.
The Tamil Nadu-born coach felt that Churchill Brothers will be tough opposition as they needed a win more than his own side. “Before the last game, we were in the bottom. So we know that they will be fired up like we were in the last game. We can’t take this game lightly. I’m expecting them to go all out tomorrow,” he warned.
He also explained that he will allow Churchill to attack them through the wings and counted on his defenders to handle the volume of crosses expected – “I think we will allow them to attack us from the wings and have set up the team to deal with them. We want to have a numerical advantage in the box to deal with crosses.”
Visitors Churchill Brothers are coming to this game on the back of two losses and Alfred Fernandes rued the decisions that have gone against him in the previous games.
“After the Bengaluru game, it should have been an upward curve for us. The next game we had a good match at Shivajians. But the away games started and we were unlucky against Minerva,” he remarked.
He also felt that scoring goals was a problem for his side and the performances they have been coming up with have not been rewarded with results – “Based on our performances, we don’t deserve to be here. We have been playing really good football but the results are not going our way which is puzzling. But somehow, our strikers are misfiring. Hopefully, tomorrow, we can do that.”
As far as the team news goes, Karanjit Singh and Haroon Amiri are doubtful for the clash for the home team while Fulganco Cardozo is still injured for Churchill Brothers. They will also miss Rowilson Rodrigues’ services as he is on leave for his nuptials.
Tuesday will witness another battle between two teams at the wrong end of the table but three points will go a long way in helping either team get back to a comfortable position on the table.
