Goa’s goal: A win vs EB and staying on Bagan’s tail

Panaji: The Indian Super League (ISL) table does not reflect the team’s actual strengths. FC Goa coach Manolo Marquez will nod in agreement, providing examples how his side can defeat league leaders Mohun Bagan Super Giant and then drop points against bottom-placed Hyderabad FC.
“Every game is tough,” said Manolo. “We are at a stage where it’s difficult to collect points. We have to focus on ourselves, and not on the table.”
No team reflects the fallacy of the positions on the table as much as East Bengal. A side packed with talented players – Manolo picked five of them as probables for the national team in his first assignment – the Kolkata giants are among the bottom three, struggling to stitch wins together. Should they lose again when facing Goa at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda on Sunday, the visitors’ woes would be full to the brim.
“We need to somehow win three games in a row to make it to the top six,” said East Bengal coach Oscar Bruzon. “We are here (after two losses) with the possibility of losing three consecutive games, but if we want to stay connected with the fight to the playoffs, we cannot wait more (to win).”
East Bengal are 10 points adrift of sixth-placed Mumbai City and have not won three games in a row in the ISL.
Goa, on the other hand, won four in a row and are now unbeaten in the last 10 games, a run that, until 48 hours ago, took them to second on the table. Quite unexpectedly though, Manolo’s side dropped points in their last two games, drawing at home against Hyderabad and away at NorthEast United.
“The draw against Hyderabad was very painful because it’s a team (against whom) you have to win. Against NorthEast, we didn't play a fantastic game, but we were very competitive. Finally, it’s one point that we picked in each of these games,” said Manolo.
Goa will need more than a point against East Bengal to stay in the race for the ISL Shield, awarded to the team that finishes on top at the end of the league stage. With a match in hand, Goa are nine points behind leaders Bagan.
The hosts will be without defensive Irish midfielder Carl McHugh, suspended after picking up four bookings. Serbian winger Dejan Drazic will sit out with an injury, leaving Manolo with four foreign players to choose.
At East Bengal, it’s worse.
The Kolkata giants have had their full quota of foreign players for just five of the 15 matches. On Sunday too they have only four available as Saul Crespo and Hector Yuste did not travel to Goa due to injury, while it might be too early for new signing, Venezuelan international Richard Celis, to have a role for 90 minutes.
“We have just completed two complete practices with him (Richard Celis). It's going to be difficult for him to adjust to this weather, to this humidity, after a very long trip and after being a month and a half out of competition. But what I can tell you is that what he's doing on the pitch is looking very well and exactly what we need. He is sharp player, a lot of quality, power, so he's a player of last third that can help us with the problem of getting goals,” said Bruzon.