Des Buckingham focused on aggressive style, Mario Rivera chasing a win

Both teams played a goalless stalemate in the reverse fixture.

Mumbai City FC find themselves in a must-win situation with four games remaining to finish in the top four and make the playoffs. Des Buckingham's side are currently in fifth with 25 points, two behind the fourth-placed Kerala Blasters with four games remaining. With one of those four games set to be against the Blasters, the Islanders must beat their next opponents SC East Bengal to stay in contention. Anything less than three points would take the qualification beyond their hands.

SC East Bengal are at the bottom and must win to avoid the tablespoon. A victory against the defending champions, who they held to a goalless draw in the reverse fixture, will take them level on points with NorthEast United and into the penultimate spot. Rivera's side, who have won just one match all season, are winless in their last five. But the Spanish coach was confident his side can have a say on how the playoffs turn out eventually.

Here's what Mario Rivera and Des Buckingham said at the pre-match conference ahead of their match.

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Mumbai City FC Coach Des Buckingham

Importance of the match

Des Buckingham: Going into this one, we know there's four games left. But again, it's important, regardless of where East Bengal are in the table right now. Obviously, with the new coach, they have a new way of working. With that they'll be a tough team. But, we must focus only on this game. We know how important it is for us and the club to set us up well for the last three. 

Objectives for the final stretch of league games

Des Buckingham: Yes, we want to pick up as many points as we can. There's 12 on offer and that's a target that we know we're going to need to get close to, if we want to finish the season in the playoffs and hopefully higher up. So, that'll be the target for the four games; to clinch as many points as we can. 

The other will be that we try and continue to play as well as we can to our identity and our style. We've shown patches and parts in halves and close to full games. But, it's important that we start putting those performances together for the full period; for 90 or 96 minutes like it was the other week. So, these will be the two things, to pick up points from the final four and make sure that we play the style of football that we want.

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Whether Mumbai City will stick with their current approach or adopt a more aggressive one

Des Buckingham: So, this game, we want to be aggressive. I've said all along. I want to be excited watching our team from the sidelines and I want us to play attacking football. That's what we've tried to take into every game. That won't change going into this one. 

We want to score goals. We need to make sure we tighten up defensively, which we have done in the last couple of games. But, for me, it's about going out to attack teams. I want to go and win games and win well.  I'm not going into a game to try and take a point or two, or to try not to lose. You know that's a very important part of me as a coach and that's a very important part of the club. That's the style that we want and we will put on against East Bengal. 

SC East Bengal coach Mario Rivera

Comparing Hira Mondal with Akash Mishra & Roshan Singh. His chance of getting national call-up

Mario Rivera: I will not talk about other players from other teams. I think Hira is a very good player with good skills. I have talked to him and if he keeps on learning, he will get a chance to be in the national team. But now, he needs to work and learn more. He’s on the way.

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Whether it will be easier for SC East Bengal to play with Mumbai City under pressure to make the playoffs?

Mario Rivera: Easy? Never. But, for them, they need to win and they will play under pressure. The only difference is that Mumbai have very big players and they can play under pressure. I don’t think it’s easy for us just because they are fighting for the top four.

On repeating the performance of the reverse fixture

Mario Rivera: If we play for a draw, we can stop them if we are a little lucky. But, we will try to win and if you want to win, you have to take some risks. It’s more difficult to play for a draw. I think SC East Bengal has to always win and we have to respect the history of the club.

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