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Manolo Marquez, FC Goa’s head coach, will be back at the home of his former club, which he had guided to emerge as the Indian Super League (ISL) Cup champion in 2022. But, this time around, Marquez should be happy to see the home team struggling to find the desired form and more importantly, snap the winless run in 16 games so far at the venue when the two teams clash here on Wednesday. Goa has four wins and three draws from nine games and is sixth on the points table with 15 points while HFC is struggling at 11th with seven points from the same number of games.
HFC, somehow, was not able to capitalise on the ‘home advantage’ and was all at sea against Odisha FC (a 0-6 loss) the last time it played at home and suffered another loss to Mumbai City FC (0-1) on the road. It will now hope to reverse the trend tomorrow against Goa. Goa has won its last two matches against HFC and kept clean sheets in both clashes.
If it wins tomorrow, it will equal its longest winning streak against the Nizams in the competition. Overall, the two teams have met 10 times in the ISL with Goa winning five, HFC three and two ending in a draw. ALSO READ: ISL 2024-25: Jamshedpur FC beats Mohammedan SC, moves to seventh HFC’s tactician Thangboi Singto said that his team had been improving on the offensive outputs and hoped that similar efforts would bear the desired results against Goa.
“I am not a big fan of stats, but the stats show that our entries into the box were much higher when we played Mohammedan SC and Kerala Blasters FC. It shows that we have to get the ball more into the opposition’s box. We have creative and quick players, who can make chances and take shots to score; that is the target for tomorrow,” Singto said.
On the other hand, Goa’s head coach Marquez asked his team to not get carried away by its recent wins and instead, take things one game at a time to optimise its prospect of getting favourable outcomes. “When you win three games in a row, people say you are the best, And when you lose three consecutive games, it’s ‘Go home, go back to your country.’ This is football, we can’t let ourselves get carried away when we win or too down when we lose,” he said.
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