Mumbai City FC will be on the lookout for their first victory in the 2018-19 season of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) when they take on Kerala Blasters FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Friday. The Islanders did impress in spells during their first match against Jamshedpur FC, but couldn’t get points on the board at the end of 90 minutes. Hence, an improved performance will be the primary motive when they take to the pitch on Friday.

At the pre-match press conference held on Thursday, Mumbai head coach Jorge Costa took questions from the media. The Portuguese began by talking about his side’s performance against Jamshedpur and the areas they need to address going into the next encounter. “I’m not happy with the result. Our last game, we had two different halves. The first half was nothing special, the second half was good as we created a lot of opportunities to score. In the end, we lost the game and three points. So, we will just try our best to get the three points tomorrow.”

Speaking on his opponents, he remarked that they would be under lesser pressure, given that they won their first match against ATK. “At this moment, we are in different situations. They have three points and we have zero. In between these two games, I couldn’t do a lot with the players. Yesterday we were very tired and today I was flying in the morning. But, yes, tomorrow we will have the pressure to get the points. Kerala are playing at home and after the last match, they won’t have much pressure. We will have pressure tomorrow, but we have to learn to control them.”

The 46-year-old also provided an injury update ahead of the fixture, signalling out two players who will be out of action. “Yes, we still have two injuries - Sehnaj (Singh) and Davinder (Singh). We have a team and 11 players will start the game for sure tomorrow. I will try to put the best team on the field.”

Costa is renowned for his man-management skills, which he has displayed throughout his career. When asked about coaching the young starlets in the Hero ISL, he replied saying that it was one of the easiest aspects of his job. “This is the easiest thing to do, to motivate the players and to try and improve. If you’re motivated yourself, it’s much easier.”

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