Chennaiyin FC visit the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Goa to take on FC Goa in the first leg of the second semi-final of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 on Saturday. The visitors lifted the Hero ISL trophy in 2015 after beating the same opponents in the final and will look to score an away goal to keep their noses in front during the return leg.

The visitors are unbeaten in their last five fixtures and addressing the media during the pre-match press conference was their head coach John Gregory, who explained why his team deserves to be in the position they are now. “It was not an accident that we finished second in the league,” he stated. “We won in Bengaluru, we won here against Goa and we won in Pune as well as Jamshedpur. But we also lost to NorthEast United FC. So, we seem to get up for the really big games, when we have to win matches and I think we deserved to finish second in the table and earn the right to come to the playoffs.”

Regarding the semi-finals, the Englishman maintained that it was a completely different ball game. “Now we start from scratch,” Gregory pointed out. “There are no points to play for, so it’s just purely a two-legged semi-final and a one-off final. And I am ready for it. My players have been rested and I can assure you they are fired up.”

Speaking about opponents FC Goa, the 63-year-old said, “We know that to go through to the final, we have to beat a very good football team. FC Goa are an outstanding football team. They proved that in the last few weeks when there was a lot of pressure on them to qualify and they were in the sixth position at one stage. They are a free-scoring team, they score a lot of goals and they have a lot of attacking options. We will need to be at our best tomorrow to go away with something.”