Confident East Bengal not taking Mumbai FC lightly: Biswajit Bhattacharya

by Kaushal Shukla January 17, 2016

A fourth place finish in the 2015 Hero I-League wasn’t received too highly by the East Bengal fans. To make matters worse, arch rivals Mohun Bagan didn’t just finish above them, but topped the charts to end their long wait for the I-League trophy. Eelco Schattorie was replaced by Biswajit Bhattacharya in the managerial hot-seat of East Bengal, and that seems to have changed quite a bit for the Red and Golds

But the new Head Coach Biswajit Bhattacharya isn’t counting his chickens just yet and promised to take Mumbai FC very seriously. “Mumbai FC have always been tough opponents and we don’t see that changing. We haven’t done well against them in the past and although we won another very difficult game in Goa, we aren’t taking things lightly,” cautioned the East Bengal Head Coach.

The former Indian National Team forward had plenty of good things to say of his opposite number Khalid Jamil and acknowledged Jamil’s work at Mumbai FC. “Mumbai FC have a very good mix of players and have a very gentle coach. I liked what he has done at Mumbai FC. He was a very good player and I believe a very good coach as well,” Bhattacharya expressed.

With the big derby game against Mohun Bagan on the horizon, there was speculation about East Bengal saving their energy for that massive game, but the East Bengal Head Coach was quick to quash any such ideas, before claiming of not thinking about the derby yet. “We are only focused on the Mumbai FC game. The derby is still too far ahead of us and we will start thinking about it once the game in Mumbai is over,” suggested Bhattacharya when he spoke to the media ahead of the game.

We wish to break the jinx: Robert Lalthlamuana

Mumbai FC haven’t lost to East Bengal in five games in all competition and stand-in skipper Robert Lalthlamuana hopes his side can finally break the jinx and beat Mumbai FC. The defender referred to East Bengal’s win in their previous game as platform to build on. “We don’t have a good record against Mumbai FC recently and we have always found them a difficult opponent. But we won a game against another tough opponent last week and hopefully we can break this jinx and beat Mumbai FC this time,” said Lalthlamuana who will skipper the East Bengal side in absence of Gurwinder Singh.