Kerala Blasters striker Antonio German failed to live up to his billing against NorthEast United FC in the 2016 Hero Indian Super League opener as his team conceded the game 1-0 at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Saturday. However, the man who scored six goals and provided three assists last season gets a big opportunity on Wednesday to restore his good name as the Blasters host Atlético de Kolkata at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi. The 24-year-old former Queen Park Rangers striker spoke to indiansuperleague.com ahead of the match. Here are the excerpts from the interview.

Last season you had a tremendous strike rate but the team fell down in position. What are your thoughts on this season? How prepared are you?

I’m very prepared, I had a good pre-season, we didn’t get off to the best start that we would have liked but hopefully we can continue next game and get a win.

How excited are you to be back and playing in front of the home crowd in Kochi?

It’s a massive advantage to us. I think the players enjoy playing in front of the home crowd, I think the fan support is massive. Hopefully we can use that advantage and win the game.

Finally a few words on Atlético, did you see their opening game?

We watch every ISL game that comes on TV but we must focus on ourselves and just focus on winning the game.