Carles Cuadrat misses Miku, Pradyum Reddy defends Robin Singh

The Blues will miss out on their main striker once again as the Stallions look to upset the league leaders.

It will be an interesting clash between Bengaluru FC and FC Pune City at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, as both sides have a pretty strong attacking lineup.

Home team Bengaluru will obviously look for a win to go five points clear of second-placed FC Goa. On the other hand, the Stallions will be aiming to give their everything for the remainder of the season to at least bring some more positive results after a poor first half of the campaign.

Coach’s Corner

Carles Cuadrat (Bengaluru FC)

The likes of Chencho Gyeltshen and Semboi Haokip have been pushed up the pecking order by Cuadrat

The Blues are currently at the top of the table and also have a couple of games in hand. Thus, times at Bengaluru are going pretty well and there will be no pressure as such on the team for tomorrow’s game. Cuadrat went on to express his opinion saying, “I don’t like to experiment much. In football, you have to have a plan and go with it and until now the plan has worked pretty well for us. We are at the top of the table and we want to keep it like that.”

“It’s just that Miku is a very important player for the team, but then we also have to give opportunities for other players like Chencho [Gyeltshen] and Semboi [Haokip]. Semboi is a good player and has helped us in scoring goals previously and at the moment we need players like him.”

Talking about Pune City’s form this season Cuadrat said, “Football is all about momentum. We are in a good dynamic, while they are in a bad dynamic. But, they had a pretty good dynamic against Jamshedpur. Unfortunately, they couldn’t take that advantage in the last game. They tried to get another win from their chances against NorthEast, but NorthEast is a very good team and they got all the three points.”

“They are in a position where they need more points and when they will visit us tomorrow, they will obviously try to get those three points. So, it will be a new test for us and let’s hope we have a good game and get ourselves the three points.”

Pradyum Reddy (Pune City)

Pradyum Reddy hopes that his team find the right balance against Bengaluru

As for Pune, they have had a pretty bad season so far and interim coach Pradyum Reddy went on to speak about how the team will be planning to get points from the remaining games. “The plan is the same for every game irrespective of what’s happened in the past. It’s a challenge to be tested in every football game and the best test in this season is to win against Bengaluru, as they are the team that are top of the table. They are unbeaten and are also are the team that everyone would like to beat.”

Talking about the team’s performance he went on to say, “The defence has been an issue, but then in the last game we were very well organized defensively apart from the set-pieces.”

“Our bigger concern is that when we attack, we leave some holes in the defence and we need to concentrate on finding the right balance. In this season we haven’t managed to have a balance.”

“It happens when the team is unsettled. If you look at the teams which are at the top of the table, they are pretty settled,” he added.

Reddy also went on to defend Robin Singh despite the forward having a hit and miss performance this season. “It’s just a matter that you have to give your players the trust and of course he missed chances, but then everyone misses chances. It is important to give the player a positive environment and confidence to score.”

Reddy was previously the assistant coach at Bengaluru and he spoke about how it feels great to be back in the city as well as to play in front of the fans in the stadium. “It’s a fantastic experience. These are the games you would want to be involved in. Obviously, it is special to come back to the club where you have tasted a lot of success. It will be a good game out there.”

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• Five things FC Pune City need to do to revive their season

Team News

Bengaluru FC

Bengaluru star Miku is out due to injury and Cuadrat confirmed that the player has travelled to Spain to have a checkup with his doctor at Rayo Vallecano. The coach also confirmed the Venezuelan’s absence till January. Another foreigner Albert Serran too suffered a minor injury in the last game, but the coach is hopeful that the player will be fit for the match tomorrow after a good training session.

Pune City

Diego Carlos is out until January, but the rest of the players are fit.

Probable Lineup

Bengaluru FC

Gurpreet, Nishu, Juanan, Serran, Bheke, Paartalu, Khabra, Udanta, Xisco, Chhetri, Chencho.

Pune City

Kamaljit, Sahil, Mills, Gurtej, Ashutosh, Vila, Adil, Marcelinho, Ashique, Robin, Hume.

Did You Know?

• Bengaluru’s Sunil Chhetri has scored 26 goals in the ISL so far and is the highest scoring Indian in the league.

• Pune are yet to win against Bengaluru (played 5, lost 3, drawn 2).

• The gap between the two teams is already 14 points, with the Blues having played two games less than the Stallions.

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Broadcast

The game will be played live at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru and will simultaneously be broadcasted at 7:30 pm on Star Sports Network, Jio TV and Hotstar.