Mumbai City FC host Kerala Blasters FC at the Mumbai Football Arena in Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 on Sunday. The Islanders are unbeaten in their last three fixtures and have scored eight goals in those matches while picking up seven points. A win would give them top-four status, but it will not be easy against the Blasters, who have regained their scoring touch.

Ahead of the match, Alexandre Guimaraes, head coach of Mumbai addressed the media and made his team’s immediate agenda clear. “Our first goal is accomplished in terms of finishing the first half of the league very close to the top,” the Costa Rican explained. “That has put us in a good situation to continue to compete the way we’re competing in this league. In the second half, game after game we want to get closer to the top four, which is our final objective. So tomorrow we have our first game against Kerala which is a very important game after they’ve come alive. We can’t give them the chance to get close to us.”

The 58-year-old also spoke about what he expects of Kerala. “When a new coach comes, it shakes everyone,” Guimaraes said. “It shakes the players as they don’t know what the new coach will do. They also have a new foreign player. This is of course, a team who comes here energized. It is not easy to win away, they did that, so they come here with a lot of confidence.”

Guimaraes went on to expand on his plans for the second half of the season. “I think now we will have a period after we finish our game; a period of long term practice,” he revealed. “I’m very optimistic about this period of practice... I feel that period will help us very much to insert more information into the players in terms of practice. We have to get to the final month in very good shape.”