ATK will face off against defending champions Chennaiyin FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. Steve Coppell's men will go into the match looking for all three points in order to keep pace with the race for the top four.

Ahead of the big match, indiansuperleague.com interviewed ATK midfielder Jayesh Rane, who has also represented Chennaiyin in the past. Here are the excerpts.

Is returning to Chennai special for you?

Obviously, it is special returning to a city where I’ve played for three years. It’s obviously a special feeling. Last season, I couldn’t come here because of my injury but this season I don’t know how it’ll be. Let’s see what happens.

Does Steve Coppell’s system require extra defensive effort?

Yeah, I think every position has responsibilities both while defending and attacking. Everyone is doing very well defensively, but I think in the last few matches, we’ve not been scoring goals. We are working hard on it and we hope we can make that happen and win some matches.

How crucial is this match?

Three points will be very valuable for us because now it’s a stage where all the teams are very close. You can’t say which team will go in and which team will go out. So, we’ll hope to win all the matches and gather all the points we can.

Is Chennaiyin FC’s lack of form an advantage for ATK?

I don’t think there’ll be an extra advantage there. It’s their home match so obviously, the advantage is with them. As I said, there is no team which has gone out yet so you can never say what happens. We just have to do what we do and play well, work hard and I don’t think they’ll give three points up easily. We just have to work for it and they will do the same for the three points. So, we just need to focus. We just need to work hard and win the match.