Phil Brown rues injuries and suspensions, Jorge Costa hopes to keep up the momentum

The Maharashtra Derby is one of the most awaited games of the season.

In what will be the final fixture of the Indian Super League (ISL) at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, FC Pune City are set to host Mumbai City FC. Ahead of the game, the coaches of both clubs met with the media to discuss their chances in the much-awaited fixture.

Coach’s Corner

Phil Brown (FC Pune City)

The Englishman didn’t reveal the actual plans of his team for tomorrow’s game, but was certainly wary of the opponents’ threat. He discussed a few key traits of the Islanders’game and talked about focusing on a few positive aspects of his side.

The Stallions faced their first defeat under Brown in their last game against Delhi Dynamos and the coach spoke about how it is disappointing and tough to cope up with the injuries and suspensions. “Any team in the ISL or for that matter in the English Premier League too, would struggle after losing its key players,” said Brown.

Given that Pune are seriously short of key players against Mumbai, Brown spoke about providing opportunities to the other young players in the squad. “It is important when you bring in the young players to win a game, but at the same time it is of no use bringing in five young players and then getting beaten 5-0.”

Yet, the 59-year-old was impressed with the young players considering that seven Pune City starlets have been selected for the upcoming U-23 national team camp. He was all praise for the likes of Sahil Panwar and Sarthak Golui.

Jorge Costa (Mumbai City FC)

The Portuguese looked pretty confident about the game tomorrow and expressed his contentment with the way the team's performed overall in the season and qualified for the playoffs.

Talking about the team selection for the final league game, Costa denied resting any key players before the playoffs to keep the momentum going, despite admitting to the fact that some are out with injuries and suspensions.

Moving on, the 47-year-old was asked about who he would prefer to play the most in the playoffs to which he answered, “My first target was to get into the top four. Now that we are here, I respect each and every team in the playoffs and think that every team is equal.”

“We have a game to play tomorrow and surely two more games as of now. I hope we get to play another game, which obviously would be the final.”

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Team News

FC Pune City

Ashique Kuruniyan, Marcelinho, Martin Diaz and Diego Carlos are out for the game, while Matt Mills is back and available for selection.

Mumbai City FC

Apart from Davinder Singh everyone is fit for Mumbai City.

Probable Lineups

FC Pune City

Kamaljit, Mills, Panwar, Golui, Vila, Adil, Rohit, Poojary, Stankovic, Hume, Robin.

Mumbai City

Amrinder, Ali, Kiisura, Vignesh, Souvik, Raynier, Milan, Machado, Issoko, Sougou, Bastos.

Did You Know?

• Mumbai City have won just three times in nine games against Pune in the ISL.
• Modou Sougou has scored 50% of the total goals scored by Mumbai this season (12/24).
• Pune have won just two games at home this season.

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Broadcast

The match will be played at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi and will be simultaneously broadcast on the Star Sports Network, Jio TV and Hotstar at 7:30 pm on Saturday.