Goa: With the third and fourth spot up for grabs, NorthEast United will take on Chennaiyin FC on Thursday at the GMC Stadium in Bambolim. With prolific performance since the appointment of Khalid Jamil as interim coach, the Highlanders have been the out and out favourite to qualify for the playoffs as they are currently on 26 points after 17 matches.
The players like Federico Gallego and Luis Machado has been the key for the Highlanders in their dream run. Even Deshorn Brown has been key too after he joined them from Bengaluru FC. These players with other players have to step up if they want to qualify for the play-offs.
NEUFC assistant coach Alison Kharsyntiew urged his team to not take their opponents lightly. “We just have to control them, dictate the play and not give them time with the ball and space to operate,” he said.
“We have to be calm, composed, and concentrate on our game. At the same time we have to show aggression we have to play with intensity and 100 percent effort to win the match,” he further added.
On the other hand, Chennaiyin have been in a batch patch since the second match of the season. They have the lowest goal-scoring tally of the season, with players missing easy opportunities in front of goal and has summed up for the two-time ISL Champions for this season.
This match would be important for them too as they want to finish with the highest number of points which they can earn. With Yakub Sylvestr among the goals, they would be looking for spoiling the party of the Highlanders.
“We have two games to go and this is not just about playoffs but it is to take good results. In these two games, we will do everything in order to win,” stated Chennaiyin coach Csaba Laszlo.
“It (NorthEast) will be a tough game. They have made good recruitment especially the foreigners. And in this game we see if we get the opportunity or not but our target is to win this game. Our attention is on playing successful football and scoring goals. We go into the game the way we went against Goa and this is our target,” stated Laszlo, about NorthEast’s performance in their last seven games.
