Mumbai City FC will be hoping to put the disappointment of their home loss against Odisha FC behind them when they take on FC Goa in their next Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2019-20 encounter at the Mumbai Football Arena.

Ahead of Thursday’s clash, Mumbai City FC’s head coach Jorge Costa backed his players against FC Goa and faulted their first half performance for the loss against Odisha FC. “After watching the game many times, I can say that with a little bit of work, we can get a better result. But I think that to win a match, you need to fight a lot, and we did not do that in the first half. When you do not perform in the first 45 minutes, you lose the game. We cannot do anything (about it now) as it was a bad day for us, but we cannot repeat the same mistakes we made against Odisha,” Costa told reporters at the pre-match press conference.

The Gaurs have scored 24 goals against the Islanders in Hero ISL history, but Costa doesn’t think that will have any bearing on the contest, Mumbai’s gaffer said, “The last game we played against FC Goa, we beat them in Goa. But I agree the last season was a difficult season for us against them. They have almost the same team as last season, so they haven’t changed a lot. But this is a different season and the good thing is that we learnt from our mistakes and now we know how to beat Goa.”

“So, I’m not expecting an easy game for sure and they are not expecting an easy game as well. We respect each other. If we do the correct things, we can win. Tomorrow we must be focused, 100 per cent professional and fight till the end to win all three points. I will find solutions, not excuses whatever the result of the game. My job is to find the best XI to play, the best way to play and to put my players to work, to fight and give everything to the club,” the Portuguese coach added.

When asked how he thinks the match will develop, Costa said: “It will be a different game for sure. Sometimes, the better team wins. We can never know what happens. Therefore, I love football; anything can happen. So, we must wait and see what happens tomorrow. It’s not easy to win at home. But I believe we can do it. We had a break of five months and then we played three games in one week which is not ideal. But this is not an excuse. I’m doing my best to find the solutions and the only solution is for my players to play to their best abilities till the last minute of the match.”

One key player ruled out of Thursday’s clash for Mumbai is Rowllin Borges. “He is out for the game. I don’t know exactly how long it will take. Fortunately, we have a game tomorrow and then we have a small break. I hope we can recover some players. As I always say, I am happy with these players, but it is always important to have more.” Costa said.

Costa was accompanied at the press conference by Mohammed Rafique, who spoke about the long break since Mumbai’s last game as well as the home loss against Odisha FC, “We got six days to build the team’s confidence level. We got time to recover and we are fresh from the fatigue. We did not have any luck against Odisha. We are like a family even if we win or lose. We listened to the coach and have rectified our mistakes.”

Read the Match Preview here.