FC Pune City take on FC Goa in Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Goa on Saturday. The Stallions will be wary when facing the rampant Gaurs in Goa as they come off the back of a 3-1 defeat handed to them by Bengaluru FC in their previous fixture. A win will see them tied on points with the Gaurs at the top half of the table.

Speaking to the media in the pre-match press conference was Pune’s head coach Ranko Popovic, who was asked how he was evaluating both the team’s attacking prowess. He replied, “It’s nice when you can score the goals. It’s nice for the supporters, it’s nice for the league. It should be an interesting game. My experience from the league is that the team who makes lesser mistakes has more possibility to win. Like in tennis, the players who make less unforced errors have more possibility to win. I don’t like statistics too much. This is one of the few things. We’ve paid for our mistakes in the last game. I hope we would be the one to win the game.”

Goa’s Spaniards have grabbed eyeballs across the nation and Popovic shared his views on the same. “It’s very nice to have a Spanish influence. The Spanish style is an attacking style and Spanish players are special players. This is a style that I like. They are first in the table and also play good attractive football. This is what is special for FC Goa. It is a challenge for us to show that we can compete with that,” he opined.

When asked if the Stallions would implement a more defensive approach on Saturday, the Serbian explained, “The people coming to watch want us to score more goals. Everyone has a different style and different philosophy. Every coach and every team want to score one more goal. The supporters want to see more goals, they want to see more chances. All these things that make football beautiful. So long as we score more goals I will be satisfied. Yes, everyone wants result. It’s a new league, we don’t have to kill the football.”

The 50-year old also avoided discussing if a draw would be an ideal result against the mighty Gaurs. “I’m not someone to decide that before a game. My temperament is such that I try to win. If you do everything to win you cannot go home disappointed. This is what we tell the boys. What we want is to put all your energy to win the game. You can lose the game but you’re not a loser. We have to play football because people pay a ticket to watch us. They pay to watch us and we have to show something,” he concluded.