NorthEast United FC head coach Nelo Vingada eyes bouncing back from their defeat in Mumbai when his side plays FC Pune City at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium in Balewadi on Wednesday.The Highlanders got their 2016 Hero ISL season off to a flier beating Kerala Blasters FC and last year’s runners-up FC Goa. However, a defeat greeted them when they travelled to Mumbai City FC.Speaking to the media on Tuesday, the Portuguese gaffer said: “Tomorrow will be a hard game of course for us because the game for us in Mumbai was very hard. We lost but it was our best game yet. We had a great performance and we created many chances and I think with this organization and performance we hope to create a lot of difficulties for Pune tomorrow.“I respect Pune and they have a good team. They got a good result in Goa. We need to reach the same level as we did in Mumbai and we should convert our chances.”Wednesday’s game will be NorthEast United’s fourth game this season in less than two weeks. Discussing what he deemed a tough situation, Vingada said: “It has been tough for us because we have played three games in six days and tomorrow we are playing our fourth game. In some way, maybe not so fair. But whatever, this schedule is not easy in any country, at least at the start. But the league is very good, well organized…Anyway, no excuses. This draw was made long back and I knew it before I came here. It is my obligation to prepare because it is not easy, but I have to prepare the players for this challenge.”The 63-year-old also made it clear that he wasn’t looking to rest too many players for this match. “I am not that kind of coach, even though this league is special and is such that you need to change players. For this game we may have one to two changes, maximum. I am not thinking about my game on Saturday [vs Delhi Dynamos FC]. Players need to be playing too. So I won’t change much. For me tomorrow’s game is most important, the final for me. I will focus on the squad for that game. It won’t be easy but in football, everything is possible,” he said.“The [overall] target is to finish in the first four teams. Right now we have to focus on only that aspect.”
