Bengaluru: Having tasted their first home defeat, Bengaluru FC will aim to bounce back when they take on Jamshedpur FC in a battle of debutants, at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Thursday.
Despite having the same number of points as FC Goa and Chennaiyin, ‘The Blues’ are placed second after suffering defeats to both of the first and third placed teams. With all the top three teams ties at 12 points, Bengaluru coach Albert Roca has asked for an immediate reaction from his boys for reclaim the pole position.
“It’s important to react and at home we cannot concede more points. The players know how important is a victory after the last result. We hope things will be better than the last time,” said Roca at the pre-match conference.
The likes of Udanata Singh, Eric Paartalu and Rahul Bheke all of whom sat out of the previous encounter, which Bengaluru lost 1-2 to Chennaiyin may return to the starting line-up. Roca however denied any gruesome changes to the team citing, he is confindent of the brand of football Bengaluru play.
“We trust our brand of football and we have no doubts about the way we play,” added the former Barcelona assistant.
It will however not be an easy task for ‘The Blues’ to break a defence that has been most misery this campaign, conceding just one goal. Led by the experienced duo of Tiri and Andre Bikey the Jamshedpur defence has been a solid rock losing just one game against Pune. But while being defensively strong the ‘Men of Steel’ has however failed to score more than one goal upfront.
“From day one, we concentrated very much on having a solid foundation. We worked quite hard on our defensive structures. We are not prolific up front. We have to improve,” said head coach Steve Coppell before taking on the debutants.
Coming on the back of a 0-1 to defeat to Pune at home, Jamshedpur may fancy their chances of snatching atleast a draw if not full three points.
Coach Coppell is however aware of the threat Bengaluru possess. ‘The Blues’ have so far scored 14 goals in the campaign, with six of them coming from former Venezuelan international Minute. Captain Chhetri has also chipped in with three goals and will be raring to launch after that home loss.
Jamshedpur nonetheless can take heart from Chennaiyin’s success at the fortress and Coppell pointed it out as something that has given them a glimmer of hope.
“I suppose we will approach this game in a similar way to Chennai. The coach made five or six changes for the last game and showed he has the confidence, depth and quality within the squad. It just shows that Bengaluru have the deepest squad within the ISL at this stage. This is a great challenge for us. Chennai came here and were successful and we hope to do the same,” added the former Crystal Palace manager.