Chennaiyin FC head coach Marco Materazzi hopes his players maintain their winning streak and qualify for the 2015 Hero Indian Super League semi-finals by beating FC Pune City at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium on Saturday.If Chennai lose to the Stallions, NorthEast United FC will advance to the semis. However, if the Super Machans even register a draw, they will be through to the next stage on account of a superior goal difference than that of the Highlanders.“Yes, of course they have much less to lose than us. But I would like to congratulate the players for creating this second chance for us. Fourteen days ago, we were close to being the first team to be eliminated. This league is like that, that you lose two games in a row and you can find yourself at the bottom of the table. But if you win two games, you can be in the top half. But I do respect Pune a lot and the work they have done. I am sure they have done what they can do to develop football in India,” Materazzi said ahead of the game.When asked what brought about the upsurge in Chennai’s fortunes in the last few matches, Materazzi said: “It’s all about the players. They had what it takes to put in practice and do what I told them to do. Just because I kept telling them that they had the technical skills and I kept telling that they had what was needed to qualify but they needed to play as a team and they did that. They did it mostly because I have an intelligent group of players.”Materazzi also sympathised with the people of Chennai who have been through a lot in the last few weeks due to floods caused by unprecedented rains. “I’ve never seen anything like this before but to see the people smile and to see the people start over again, it makes the whole Indian population proud. My thoughts go out to the people and to everyone who wants to start over,” Materazzi said.Chennai played their last game at home on Tuesday against Mumbai City FC but reached Pune only on Friday morning and when asked if fatigue - brought about by travel inconveniences due to the floods in Chennai - will be a factor on Saturday, Materazzi replied in the negative. “I think when you have this type of chances, these kind of games, the distance and travelling for even a day doesn’t matter. I think we would have even done this distance on foot. But I think on this occasion who is really suffering is the people of Chennai. We are privileged people and I don’t care if we have to travel one or three days for this occasion.”Materazzi also informed that star midfielder Raphael Augusto was an injury concern going into the match.
