Peter Reid: wants to finish on a high at home.Mumbai City FC head coach Peter Reid affirmed that he would rather leave the mathematics of qualifying for the semi-finals to Albert Einstein and concentrate on winning their game against Atlético de Kolkata when the two sides meet at the DY Patil Stadium on Sunday. The visitors had humbled the hosts 3-0 in the opening game of the Hero Indian Super League.Cellar team Mumbai City have the slimmest of mathematical chances of qualifying for the semis should they win their next two matches and must hope that other results go in their favour. The English gaffer admitted that his side had been on a miserable run in the run-up to tomorrow’s game. “I will make no excuses for our form. We have been very, very poor. I just want the team to go out and play for the fans tomorrow. It is our last home game and we would want to end it on a high,” Reid said at the pre-match press conference today.The former Everton midfielder mentioned that the absence of his key players on the pitch for the most part was one of the several reasons for their inconsistent form this season, “I do not mean this as an excuse, but our main players just have not played enough. (André) Moritz and (Nicolas) Anelka have had a stop-start season. Both of them have trained lightly and we will assess them tomorrow again to know if they will be fit to start. Freddie Ljungberg is not fit, so he will not play. However, Anelka has a really good chance of being involved in the game, so we are keeping our fingers crossed,” the former England manager revealed. Reid was also complimentary about the intense level of competition among the teams in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) as he explained, “I am not surprised at the level of competition. When I first arrived here, I assessed the scenario and was aware that every team would have to work really hard in order to qualify for the semi-finals. Take the game between Chennaiyin FC and FC Goa as an example. I thought that Chennai would go on and win it. But the ISL has surprised us again and you have to take your hat off to the teams that are at the top. I have always put my teams out to win a football match and sadly, we have not been able to come away with the results that we might have liked. Similarly, though Kolkata are a good side, we will be looking to beat them and hopefully prevent them from doing the double over us.”Mumbai City captain Syed Rahim Nabi spoke about the “prestige issue” at stake after they lost to Atlético de Kolkata on the opening night of the championship. “We will be competitive tomorrow, make no doubt about it. I have been personally hurting ever since they beat us. It is a prestige issue when you are playing on your home turf. We will give our best tomorrow and hopefully will come away with a positive result,” he declared.
