Bengaluru FC will be on the road to square off against Mumbai City FC at the Mumbai Football Arena on Friday. The defending champions are currently second in the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2019-20 table and have the opportunity to go top with a win from the fixture. Carles Cuadrat and Co., however, will need to be wary against the Islanders, who beat them in the reverse fixture back in December, 2019.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, the Bengaluru head coach acknowledged that Mumbai will be a tough test and said, “We are working well; everything is ready for the game. Mumbai is a team that always makes things difficult for us. They are a very counter attacking team. They don’t want the ball. They try to be very aggressive and they try to play the long ball over the defenders.”

“We know their tactics and normally in such games, we have to try to be the first one to score. Otherwise, things will become easy for them and that’s what happened in the last game. We created two chances in the first ten minutes, but they scored first, and it was an easy game for them. So, we need to try and score first,” Cuadrat added, stressing the importance of the first goal.

Mumbai City are enduring a slump of sorts, having lost their last two games. But Cuadrat refused to read too much into it and stated, “This league can change very fast. At one point, they won three games in a row and they looked like favourites but suddenly they lost two games. It happens with a lot of teams. We have six games to play. If we have a good dynamic, I’m sure we can make it to the top four. They are going to fight to find their good dynamic against us as well.”

Cuadrat was joined by youngster Suresh Wangjam, who spoke about his experience so far at Bengaluru. “To be honest, I’m lucky to have some good senior players. They really help me during practice. Every minute I play is very important for me. For me, the most important thing is to help the team. I try to follow the instruction of the coaches,” he said.