Atlético de Kolkata head into Sunday’s encounter against Mumbai City FC at the DY Patil Stadium on the back of three consecutive losses. The visitors will be hoping to turn around their campaign by undoing a Mumbai side high on confidence. Denzil Franco, an integral part of the ATK defensive unit, spoke to indiansuperleague.com ahead of their crunch tie in Navi Mumbai. Here are the excerpts from the interview.Three successive losses, what is the morale in the camp like at the moment?Well, I would say it’s not a good thing for us. At the same time it’s part of football, you win some, you lose some, so we’re taking it in a really sporting way and we’re looking forward to the Mumbai City FC match with a positive attitude.Do you think injuries have affected your campaign so far?I wouldn’t say no but in every position we have players who can take positions of whoever is injured so I don’t think we should go with the excuses of injury but all said and done I’m really hoping that the players who are going to take the field on Sunday can take three points out of the match.You currently have seven points from six games. Do you still have the belief that ATK can make the semi-final stage?Very much. I have the belief that we will definitely make it to the first 4 and we just have to believe in ourselves and take one match at a time, so we’re not thinking that far. I just want to think that Sunday’s match is the final and taking three points [is important] and when the league matches are over we’ll see."Support us no matter what, support ATK and we will not disappoint."Denzil FrancoYou’ll head into Sunday’s encounter against Mumbai City FC, having played your last game just on Thursday. Will that affect the team?It is the same with all the teams, I think last week we had some good rest of five, six days. Only this match we have got a couple of days’ rest and then we’re back on the field but then we cannot stick with the excuse of saying we didn’t have proper rest. Yes, it’s true but all the teams have faced the same situation. That’s how the ISL has been planned.You are returning after a lengthy injury. How does it feel to be back in first-team action?Awesome. You know last season when I was injured after the fourth match I was really dejected. I was really disappointed for what happened but then god has been very kind to me. He got me back on the field and especially my team ATK has been very supportive towards me throughout my recovery. They have stood by me through thick and thin and I’m very grateful to them… I’ve played two matches at the moment for ATK and want to do well if given a chance on Sunday, just hoping for a win. That’s all I want because staying out of football for ten months is a big disappointment for me and as a sportsman no one wants to sit at home and see your team-mates play, so I’m really looking forward to the upcoming match and hopefully we’ll win this match.Any messages for Atlético de Kolkata fans?I just want to tell them ‘be calm, we will bounce back. Support us no matter what, support ATK and we will not disappoint.
