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A hattrick of wins will be on the minds of the Odisha FC fans as the team from Bhubaneswar gets ready to take on Kerala Blasters in its third game of the Indian Super League 2021-22. After starting the season on a great note by beating Bengaluru FC in the first match on 24th November, Odisha FC got the better of SC East Bengal in its second game last Tuesday.
On the other hand, Kerala Blasters FC had started their campaign with a defeat against ATK Mohun Bagan and then managed draws against NorthEast United and Bengaluru FC. The upcoming match on Sunday will be an away game for the Kalinga Warriors and will be played at Tilak Maidan, Vasco. The match is about to start at 19:30h IST on December 5.
The previous meeting between the two teams had ended in a 2-2 draw while in the first game of the seventh season, Odisha FC had managed to get the better of the Blasters by a margin of 4-2 goals. The stage is set for a mouthwatering battle again between the two teams and the two coaches Kiko Ramirez and Ivan Vukomanovic will definitely look forward to a win. Coach Kiko will want to continue the winning run while Coach Ivan must be having the thoughts of Kerala’s first win of the season on Sunday.
In the first two games, the Juggernauts have looked pretty confident on the pitch. All the foreigners have been exceptional so far with Javi Hernandez, Hector Rodas and Aridai Cabrera already having multiple goals to their names so far this season. In the previous game, young Mizoram lad Isaka Ralte also showed his finishing skills and had become the first Indian goal scorer from OFC in the ongoing season. Other Indian players like Vinit Rai, Kamaljit Singh, Jerry Mawihmingthanga, Isaac Vanmalsawma were also impressive in the previous encounter against East Bengal that OFC won 6-4.
Head Coach Kiko rotated his players very tactically in the first two games and he is of the opinion that this will allow all the players to be in a good shape for the entire duration of the League. “We made the change as we want everyone to be in good shape. We have many matches in a short period of time so we made the changes. So it was not related to any injury, just a tactical decision of the staff,” he said after the win against SC East Bengal.
Odisha FC did have a few concerns in the defense especially after the 75th minute in the last outing and has conceded two penalties in the last two games. SCEB’s three out of their four goals scored in the last game came after the 75th minute and the Kalinga Warriors will definitely want to work on that when they step on the pitch against the Blasters.
Speaking about the last game, the OFC gaffer had explained, “It was a crazy match and as a coach you don’t like that. We are worried about some aspects that we need to correct because that can’t happen in a top-flight match. We have to work a lot if we want to be a serious team. It would have been a wonderful match for the fans because a lot of goals happened but not for the coaches.”
“As of now we want to work towards not conceding so many goals. If we want to be with the best teams in the league we need to work and not concede so many goals in the match,” Coach Kiko further added.
The Juggernauts and all the fans from Manjappada will definitely want to see a Super Sunday clash between the two teams on December 5.
