Mumbai City FC will face reigning champions Chennaiyin FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Saturday evening. The defending champions have made their worst start to a Hero Indian Super League (ISL) campaign, and the Islanders will be hoping to make the most of their opponents’ poor run of form.

Ahead of their clash against the southerners, Mumbai head coach Jorge Costa claimed that he wasn’t taking the match against Chennai lightly despite their abysmal start to this season. “For sure we will have a very difficult game tomorrow. Of course, we respect Chennai. It’s true that they haven’t started the league well, but they have very good players and they have a very good coach. So, we must respect them a lot. We will try to do our best tomorrow and we will try to get back home with three points tomorrow,” he told the media personnel at the pre-match conference.

The 47-year-old reflected on his side’s heavy defeat against FC Goa and spoke about the need to be more consistent having won their previous game against Delhi Dynamos FC. “In the Goa game, we had a very good first half. We had 6-8 clear chances to score. I was not happy with the last 20-25 minutes though. But after that, we had a very good game (against Delhi),” Costa said.

“Now, I want some consistency from the team and to get results. At the moment, in the league, a lot of clubs are separated by only one or two points. We need to try to separate ourselves from that with a win,” he added.

Costa also made it clear that he doesn’t have any preferences when it comes to his players irrespective of their nationality. “From the beginning, I have said, and I believe it’s true; I don’t have foreign players or Indian players, I have 25 players and I’m happy with all the players... The players are working hard during the week. So, if you want to ask any questions about the team with regards to foreigners or Indian players, I won’t answer.”

Meanwhile, Chennaiyin assistant coach Syed Sabir Pasha warned the rest of the league about writing off the defending champions at their own peril. “We want to repeat our feats from last season but unfortunately it is not happening so far. During Marco’s (Materazzi) season (2015) we were bottom and then changed our season around and won the title. You cannot write us off. Especially, since we are the champions. We are confident we will come back,” he said.

Pasha also spoke about some of Chennaiyin’s previous matches. “Everybody sees the results. Mumbai City are also like us. In their game against Goa, they showed they are very dangerous like how we did against ATK. In the first 45 minutes, they were brilliant and fashioned a lot of opportunities. Against ATK, the result was a 2-1 loss for us, but the game played out differently. We had a lot of chances to score,” Pasha said.

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