Mumbai City FC’s final league fixture of the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2018-19 campaign will see them battle it out with FC Pune City in the season’s last Maharashtra Derby at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium on Saturday. The Islanders are through to the semi-finals but would love to win the match considering the rivalry prevalent between the two sides.

Mumbai head coach Jorge Costa began his pre-match press conference by expressing his gratitude to everyone who has helped the team reach the semis. "I’m very happy and very proud. I’m very proud of my work, my staff and I’m proud and very happy with the work of the players. To reach the top four, we had to work a lot."

"Normally, I speak about my staff and the players. These are the things we can see in every match, what I try to do, and then what the players do on the field. Sometimes, we forgot people who work for the club but nobody knows about. I want to say thanks starting with the medical staff, the press office, the driver, our kit manager," he added.

Despite already having qualified for the semis, Costa remained adamant that he will be putting out the best team he can against Pune. "I will not rest anybody. Some players will not play tomorrow. Injuries we don’t have but we have two players who are suspended and some players with three yellow cards. All the others, they will play," he revealed.

Asked about how he rated the other three teams in the top four, Costa said, "My first target was to finish in the top four. We must respect the four teams and not only two teams. We must respect those who are in the semi-finals. We have one more game tomorrow against Pune. For sure, two more games. Hopefully, we will have three games. This is not over. Because of the respect I have for the teams, I treat everyone the same."

He finished his pre-match briefing by reiterating his desire to win against Pune, or at the very least avoid defeat. "We want to win. We have 30 points. If I can have 33, I will not finish with 30. If I can have 31, I will not finish with 30. It is their last game at home and for sure, their coach wants to finish with three points," he said.

Read the Match Preview here.