BAMBOLIM, Feb 20: Former champions Bengaluru FC and Odisha FC will lock horns in a must-win game for both the teams in the Indian Super League (ISL), here on Monday.
Bengaluru are sixth in the points table with 23 points from 17 games, four adrift of fourth-placed Kerala Blasters. Odisha are a spot below them at seventh position having 22 points from 17 encounters.
The Blues saw their nine-game unbeaten streak coming to a halt against leaders Hyderabad and then suffered another defeat to lowly NorthEast United FC, derailing their fresh hopes of a semi-final berth to a certain extent.
“We need to focus only on this game. There are three points to win, and we need to improve. We played well for 20 minutes against NorthEast United, then we gave up. It was the same in the second half and that’s why we conceded two goals,” Bengaluru head coach Marco Pezzaiuoli said at the pre-match press conference.
“Odisha is a very good team on the counter-press and if you give them space like we saw in the first game that we lost, they can score goals,” he said of their opponents.
Bengaluru rely on set pieces more for their goals while Odisha are one of the highest scorers from open play in ISL 21-22. Bengaluru are the joint top scorers from set-pieces in ISL 21-22 scoring 17 from dead ball situations this season, sharing the record with Jamshedpur FC.
When it comes to open play, Odisha have scored 21 goals from open play, more than half of the goals.
The Blues will also bank on in-form forward Cleiton Silva to help the team with the goals, as will Odisha who will depend heavily on Jonathas Cristian to deliver the goods upfront.
The two Brazilians are the leading scorers for their respective teams and find themselves among the top scorers this season.
Jonathas has scored in each of his last 5 league games. After his goal against Chennaiyin FC in Odisha’s last league game, he became the first Odisha player to score in 5 straight league games.
Silva, on the other hand, has scored in two of his last three league games. Only Greg Stewart (7) has scored more goals from set pieces this season than Silva (6).
Odisha too have to win their remaining games in order to keep their semi-final hopes alive and Kino Garcia said the team will fight till the last minute of this campaign.
The last time the two teams met, Odisha ran out 3-1 winners but Garcia refused to read too much into that. (PTI)
