Bengaluru FC will be looking to strengthen their position in the top four of the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2019-20 table with a win over Jamshedpur FC at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Thursday. The Blues will be full of confidence heading into the fixture after their hard-fought 2-1 win over FC Goa at home last week.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Javier Pinillos, member of the Bengaluru coaching staff, gave his views on the upcoming challenge and said, “Jamshedpur FC have shown this season that they can play some very good football. They have been in the top four for most of the season and we cannot be complacent against them. It's a very important game for us and it could turn out to be very tough.”

Pinillos then spoke about the influence of Bengaluru’s goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu on the team, and stated, “As everyone can see, Gurpreet is having a very good season, everyone can see that he is one of the best keepers in the Hero ISL. The numbers speak for itself when it comes to Gurpreet. He has been very consistent and is an important part of the team.”

The last game between Bengaluru and Jamshedpur was a goalless draw which saw goalkeepers from both teams, particularly Jamshedpur’s Subrata Paul, pull off some fantastic saves. “In Jamshedpur, Subrata was one of the best players on the field and that means that we were doing our job. We were creating a lot of chances and getting into good positions. In Bengaluru, we have to go and play the game and try to do our best to get the points,” he noted.

Asked if the team was being overly reliant on Sunil Chhetri for the goals, Pinillos responded, “Sunil is our top scorer, yes, but all the players are creating chances and getting into good goal-scoring positions. Manuel (Onwu), Udanta Singh and the others are working hard and I'm sure they will help us during the next matches and hopefully they will score too.”

Pinillos was joined by midfielder Dimas Delgado at the briefing, who chimed in on the matter and said, “We have made many chances from set-pieces. We have a very good team, where everyone can score. We are all looking forward to the game against Jamshedpur as we do for every game. We have been working on the way we play for a long time and we know that Sunil is scoring now, so we are happy about that, but we know that a lot of players can score here.”

Read the Match Preview here.