High-flying FC Pune City host 2015 Hero Indian Super League (ISL) champions Chennaiyin FC at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium in Pune on Sunday. Coming off the back of two successive victories, they will look to carry their good form into the match against Chennai. Pune have never beaten Chennai in the Hero ISL but their head coach Ranko Popovic was upbeat about the fixture despite the Stallions’ poor record against the southerners.

“All things that happened in the past, we can use them to motivate ourselves for tomorrow’s game. But I think the biggest motivation for us must be to get the three points and to play a good game in front of our supporters. It is always nice when you can make other people happy with your football, and I hope this will be enough motivation for our players,” Popovic told reporters at the pre-match press conference.

Popovic joked that some of his players despise him for his rigorous training regimes. “All this preparation was hard and long, I know how I am on training day, and I think some players hate my face and voice on training day,” he quipped. “Why did we make those times hard? To enjoy now. Now we have to go and give our everything. We have an obligation. Tomorrow, people will come and support us, and they would want to enjoy themselves.”

Pune haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their games this season but Popovic maintained that attack is the best form of defence. “If you ask me, without the ball we are defending the goal, and with the ball we are attacking it. We will try to play the game and concede zero, and this goes for all our games. We want to do that, but not by playing defensive, because I think the best defence is to attack, and if you can, then keep the opposition as far away as possible from our goal. Don’t let them attack you and create problems,” he said.

The Serbian head coach also believes that their clash against Chennaiyin will be a physical encounter. “They are good,” he said. “They are a very strong team, and I like them. They have a good coach and good players. The players are very physically strong – maybe one of the strongest teams in this league.”