FC Goa centre-back Ivan Gonzalez said that his teammates are professionals who will play for their fans as they go up against Mumbai City FC in match 103 of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2021-22 at Athletic Stadium, Bambolim on Saturday.

FC Goa rank ninth in the league table with 18 points in 18 matches. They have suffered two losses back-to-back.

FCG lost 3-2 to Hyderabad FC in their last match. They had 57% ball possession and had seven shots on target compared to Hyderabad FC’s four.

Ahead of FC Goa’s clash with Mumbai City FC, centre-back Ivan Gonzalez and assistant coach Miranda addressed the media during the official pre-match press conference.

Here are the excerpts from Gonzalez’s press conference.

How do you look at the last two matches of the season? Also, since your contract expires after the season, Have you thought about your plan for next season?

It’s difficult but we have to play for our team, our fans and ourselves. Mumbai City FC and Kerala Blasters FC are in contention for the semi-finals. Maybe that’s a good motivation for us. We will play for our pride. We need two wins in the last two games for our fans. I think it’s a good way to finish the season. We are professionals. When the season is over, we will see what happens.

What are your thoughts on the season?

It was a very difficult season from the beginning. We started the season with three losses in a row. We were playing good. I think the only game we played badly and the opponent team was better than us, was the first against Mumbai City FC. Afterwards, we won two games. Then the coach decided to move to another team. We started well under the new coach. Then Covid-19 came in. It was difficult. I think we played not very well but continued playing in the same style. We played well but we connected a lot of goals and in attack we had bad luck.

Here are the excerpts from Miranda’s press conference.

How do you motivate the players for these last two games?

It’s always difficult in these circumstances, when you have nothing to play for. This is what it might seem like from the outside but from the inside it’s very important for the club to keep going and keep playing the way we always have. We have to keep fighting whether there’s something at stake or not. From a player’s perspective, to tell you the brutal truth, it’s important for them to keep themselves motivated because it’s their profession. We have chosen this profession. It applies to the coaching staff as well.

Will you give the youngsters a chance?

We will see. Because at the moment we have some injuries and availability of players. We will take a final call when we see what we have at our disposal.