Second-placed Mumbai City FC host table toppers Bengaluru FC in a top of the table battle at the Mumbai Football Arena on Sunday. A win for Mumbai will see them draw level on points with Bengaluru. The Islanders, however, have played a match more.

Before the crucial fixture, indiansuperleague.com caught up with Mumbai midfielder Paulo Machado for a chat. Here are the excerpts.

Do you think Mumbai can replicate their form from the first half of the season?

Yes, I think so. Everybody knows we didn’t start well in the league because as I’ve said before, many new players have come here to Mumbai City FC, we didn’t know about the league and how they played. After that, I think we completely changed our game, our football. Until the break, we enjoyed a little bit but now I believe we can do better in the second half.

How did you spend your time during the break?

I spent all of the break with my family in Portugal because it’s not so easy to be far away and not be with them all the time. I spent most of my time with my family, with my friends. For me, the most important thing is to be with them.

Thoughts on the match against Bengaluru FC.

Firstly, we need to control the match. I think when we played the first match against Bengaluru FC, we played very well. Even with 10 players, I think, we controlled the match. We need to do the same with 11 players. If we start to control the match and we have more possession of the ball, I think we can win against Bengaluru FC.

A message to the fans.

I think until now we showed very good skills, we play as a team and we showed the people that we are here to bring something to Mumbai, to show that we play well. We are here to maybe be champions so we fight for this and I hope to see all the fans in the stadium, to see us against Bengaluru FC.

Read the Match Preview here.