NorthEast United FC will be up against FC Goa in their next match of the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2019-20 season. The fixture will be played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Goa on Wednesday and presents the Highlanders with a good opportunity to close down the increasing gap between themselves and the top four.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference ahead of the tie, NorthEast head coach Robert Jarni illustrated the mood inside the dressing room currently and revealed, “We have two matches in hand. This match against Goa is very important for us. The mood inside the camp is really great and we are ready for the match. We are completely focused on the next match. We will go there to try and win.”

“We already played against Goa. They scored against us in the 96th minute to earn a draw. We know they are a really good team. And we also showed in previous matches that we are also a very good team. We are preparing for the next match. The players have done a really good job,” he added.

The Croatian also felt that there is still a long way to go until the end of the season, and his team can reach the top four with performances similar to the one they displayed in their last match against Kerala Blasters FC. “There’s still nine matches left (for us). We are taking it one match at a time. Every player is different and they have different roles. All in all, we are very pleased with the Indian players. In previous match against Kerala, we played a really good game, but didn’t score. We were much better than Kerala.”

Goalkeeper Pawan Kumar, who is in line to play his first game of the season, also shared his opinion and said, “I have this opportunity to play. I’ve played against Goa in the past. The match will be good. We will try and win against Goa. I am feeling good. The mood inside the camp is good. Looking at the table, we think that any team can go inside the top four with two consecutive wins. We have nine games in hand. If we win some of them, we can go up.”

Read the Match Preview here.