‘Dig deep, get the win’

Former Cup winners Bengaluru FC powered by the evergreen Sunil Chhetri are looking to secure a place in the Indian Super League semifinals when they host Mumbai City FC in a highstake knockout clash here on Saturday The veteran forward Chhetri who recently came out of international retirement could become the first player to score 10 goals against Mumbai City FCPetr KratkyAlso ReadAnahat Kareem champsChhetri has scored eight goals in ISL playoffs ndash more than any other player in the competitionrsquos history ndash as he looks to be the difference maker yet again However Mumbai City have been rocksolid at the back Having recorded the secondmost clean sheets this season 10 head coach Petr Kratky will rely on his defensive setup to frustrate hostrsquos attackMumbairsquos defensive highAdditionally they have the knowhow of stopping Chhetri amp Co considering they have kept four consecutive clean sheets against Bengaluru FC while also scoring eight times against them Despite scraping through to the Playoffs after finishing sixth the Islandersrsquo boss is not concerned about his teamrsquos performance in the league phase considering the knockouts to be a whole different beastlsquoISL Cup itrsquos differentrsquoldquoFor me this is a completely different competition We are playing for the ISL Cup We have reflected on whatrsquos worked and what hasnrsquot and wersquove worked hard to fix our weaknessesrdquo he said However Kratky is under no illusion about the task at hand ldquoThey Bengaluru are a quality team and they finished high in the standings for a reason We have to dig deep go away and get the winrdquo he addedNevertheless Mumbai City have a few offensive weapons of their own such as Nikolaos Karelis who has found the back of the net 10 times this season However Kratky is emphasising a teamfirst approach rather than glorifying individuals ldquoItrsquos a team effort always Karelis scored ten goals but itrsquos not just because of him itrsquos all about the team and everything comes together when we work as a unitrdquo said the Mumbai boss Meanwhile Bengalurursquos head coach Gerard Zaragoza exuded confidence in his teamrsquos ability to deliver under pressureldquoItrsquos an allornothing game and believe me we know how to play these kinds of matchesrdquo Zaragoza said Mumbai City FC have dominated this fixture in recent times winning four of their last five matches against Bengaluru However the hosts will take confidence from their dramatic penalty shootout victory over the Islanders in the 202223 semifinals the only previous Playoff meeting between the two sidesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever