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Ninth-placed Chennai City are all set to host defending champions Aizawl FC in a must-win I-League match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Saturday, February 3.
V. Soundararajan’s men have managed just two wins so far this season but they have been improving continuously. Despite creating good chances, the team has not been able to get positive results.
“We had a lot of good chances (in the last game) but we didn’t convert,” said Soundararajan. “Psychologically, we have a little fear because of relegation. It is a must-win situation and even a draw will not do.”
Chennai City FC are winless in five games and their last match ended in a goalless draw, with Henry Mosang seeing red in the second half.
The last meeting between these two sides ended 2-0 in favour of Aizawl FC and Paulo Menezes is extremely confident ahead of a second meeting.
“Our confidence levels are always the same. We try to win three points in every game. We fight against every team, even in the AFC Champions League in the last match. We tried to win,” said Paulo Menezes, the head coach of the defending champions.
“It will be a very tough game. You can not look at the table. Chennai (City FC) play good quality football,” reckons Meneses who rotate his side once again after a difficult trip to Iran in mid-week for their AFC Champions League fixture.
Meanwhile, Aizawl FC have dished out a gallant display against Iranian superpower Zob Ahan in the AFC Champions League qualifier on January 27, 2018.
“In Champions League, we tried to change our plan a little bit. Here, we need to come back to reality and put our identity to practice.”
Chennai City FC’s top scorer Jean Micheal Joachim is having a dry spell and needs to quickly get back to his scoring ways if Chennai City FC are to gain points at home against a determined Aizawl side.
Aizawl FC are fifth in the standing, having played only 10 games so far. A win on Saturday will be the first step towards climbing towards top-four for Paulo Menezes and his boys.
Kick-off is at 3pm and it’ll be aired live on Star Sports 2/2 HD and streamed live on Hotstar and Jio TV.
