Leaders Bengaluru FC aim to continue good start against Sporting Club de Goa

by Kaushal Shukla February 5, 2016

By I-League Media

BENGALURU: Current leaders in Hero I-League after 5th round, Bengaluru FC is back on their home turf when they take on Sporting Clube de Goa tomorrow at Sree Kanteerava Stadium. After Blues attaining an important away win against Kingfisher East Bengal last week, they will play two more home games in the following week.

Goa Pro League winner Sporting Clube de Goa, popularly known as Flaming Oranje, are coming from a hard-fought away loss against Shillong Lajong FC. Their coach Mateus Costa is content with 4 points that his team garnered so far, “We played well in our last match, and however, the result did not go in our favour.” He further added, “It is always good to snatch points in an away match, we’ll go all-out for win.”

”We are playing three home games on the trot, we are looking forward to it. Regardless of the result, Sporting Goa got a good team. We need to ensure we work hard as we did against KEB”, Bengaluru FC Gaffer, Ashley Westwood sounds positive ahead of the humdinger. He further added, “You need to win home games to win the league and one of our matches is against Mohun Bagan. If we don’t get results tomorrow, then the match against Mohun Bagan will become more important, we have to keep the momentum going.”

Ashley sounded skeptical about fielding the new recruit Michael Collins, “He’s very similar to Joshua Walker, a like for like. He’s fit, has been training with us since last Sunday. He has not played a match over last one month, probably lacks match fitness.”

Captain Sunil Chettri, who also joined the pre-match press conference, sounds optimistic before the tie, “We’ve had a good pre-season and that is why you’ll see players like Eugeneson, Thoi, Rino, and me fit.”

Eugeneson Lyngdoh’s hairline fracture against Mumbai FC will force Bengaluru coach to look for an alternative in tomorrow’s match, and he has a plenty to choose from. Bengaluru’s fulcrum on the field will be out for a few weeks.

Goalkeeper Amrinder Singh too sustained an injury against Kingfisher East Bengal, the team think tank will take a final call tomorrow on him whether he is fit to play or sit out on the reserve bench. Salam Ranjan Singh and Udanta Singh are also out of consideration for tomorrow’s match.

All-fit Flaming Oranje will be missing talented Rowllin Borges, who is also representing India in the South Asian Games.