Goa: Chennaiyin FC will face bitter Southern rivals, Bengaluru FC in the Indian Super League on Friday at the Fatorda. Winless in four games, Chennaiyin come into the encounter on the back of a 2-0 defeat to Hyderabad FC in the last match. BFC on the other hand posted a 2-0 win over SC East Bengal in their previous outing, the first victory for them after eight games prior without one.
Eighth placed Chennaiyin (16 points) will be aiming to leapfrog their opponents Bengaluru (18 points) who are in sixth place currently. Looking to avenge the narrow 1-0 defeat in the reverse fixture against Sunil Chhetri and company, Csaba Laszlo’s Chennaiyin squad will be boosted by some key additions.
The Marina Machans’ gaffer confirmed in his pre-match press conference that new signing Manuel Lanzarote will be available for selection against Naushad Moosa’s side. And in more welcome news, central defender Enes Sipovic will return after suspension, while Anirudh Thapa will also be in contention after making a ‘100% recovery’ from injury, in Laszlo’s words.
For Bengaluru, central defender Juanan is ruled out with a hamstring tear, confirmed by Moosa in his pre-match notes. Youngster Leon Augustine is also out with injury, while Rahul Bheke will be unavailable due to suspension after having picked up his fourth yellow card of the season.
Both former ISL champions have had a rocky and stop-start ISL season so far, unable to get going and register wins. With the business end of the campaign now approaching with five league games left to play and only five points separating CFC and FC Goa in fourth place, it’s all heating up in search of the play-off spots.
The return of Thapa and the injection of creativity from the new signing Lanzarote could hold the key for Chennaiyin against a compact BFC side. The lack of creativity has been a pain point for them following Rafael Crivellaro’s unfortunate season-ending injury. And with this particular clash carrying that added significance for both sets of fans given the fervour around it being a southern derby and the recent history between both clubs, it sure promises to be an entertaining affair.
On the other hand, Bengaluru FC Interim Head Coach Naushad Moosa said his side are keen to add to their momentum. Bengaluru, sixth on the table and three points off the final playoff spot, come into the fixture on the back of their first win of the calendar year, while eighth-placed Chennaiyin are winless in their four most recent encounters.
“I watched Chennaiyin’s games against Hyderabad FC and Mumbai City FC and they were really strong and put in good performances. They even managed to draw with Mumbai, who are on top of the table. They will have all their foreigners available against us, and it will not be an easy contest in any way. We will have to be compact, the way we were against East Bengal, and how we defend will play an important role in the outcome of this fixture. We have to make sure they don’t get many scoring opportunities.”
Bengaluru claimed their first win of the calendar year with a 2-0 result against East Bengal on Tuesday, and Moosa says the result had a visible effect on the mood in the camp. “There is a lot of positivity in the camp because of the way we have been playing the last few games. We stayed compact against Hyderabad and Kerala, and then we didn’t repeat the same mistakes in our last game against East Bengal. Everyone was happy in the dressing room and we defended cautiously till the final whistle. We are not going to worry about the results or points, we will go out and give our best in each game going ahead.”
On the injury front, Moosa confirmed that Juan Gonzalez and Leon Augustine would miss out for the Blues, having picked up hamstring injuries. “Juanan is probably out for the rest of the ISL season, because he has a hamstring tear that will need at least six weeks to recover. Leon [Augustine] is also out for two to three weeks, which is unfortunate because he was having a really good run of form.”
The Blues will be without the services of defender Rahul Bheke, who picked up his fourth yellow card against East Bengal, but the side are buoyed by the availability of midfielder Erik Paartalu, who returns after serving a suspension of his own. Chennaiyin FC, on the other hand, will have attacking midfielder Manu Lanzarote in the reckoning, after the Spaniard replaced Rafael Crivellaro, who has been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign through injury.
Xisco Hernandez, who made his debut on his return to the club against East Bengal. Moosa maintained that he will need more time before an assessment on the Spaniard’s fitness can be made. “The problem with Xisco is that he has not played in a while now. He has had a long gap, and then he had to do the mandatory 14 day quarantine here. His fitness is not at its best at the moment and we don’t want to take any risk.”
