NorthEast United FC coach Cesar Farias is not complacent ahead of his team’s Hero Indian Super League Season 2 home game against Kerala Blasters FC at the Indira Gandhi Stadium on Sunday. The Highlanders, who brought themselves back in semi-final contention by picking seven points from their last three matches, go into Sunday’s encounter high on confidence against a bottom-dwelling side but the Venezuelan has urged his players to keep their feet on the ground.“We are improving step by step, taking it easy and focusing on our gameplay. The next match is very important for the team, we can’t deny that and we want to make the most of it. But we need to keep our feet on the ground…We have to come to the game as hungry as we have been in the last few games. With the same intensity and competitive mindset and take this game as a final. We know these are very important three points,” Farias told reporters on Saturday.NorthEast were on the losing side in their away encounter against Kerala earlier in the season. When asked what his plans were to stop that from happening again, Farias said: “All the victories and losses are in the past and we are focusing 100% on this game. It’s going to be a different game, now we have all the players available. When we played Kerala we did not have eight players and it was our first game [of Season 2]. This game is different and whichever team shows up with the best attitude to win the game will win it and we hope that that team is us.”Out of NorthEast’s last five matches in the league stage, four will be played in Guwahati. When asked if that was an important factor in his team’s quest for the semis, Farias said: “Of course, it is an advantage for us to have four games at home because we became stronger at our home ground and we hope to grow even stronger in the remaining games. We don’t think about how many points will get us to the top four spot, we just think game by game and our full concentration is on getting the three points against Kerala right now. We hope that everything goes well to achieve the objectives that we have set for ourselves.”
