Chennaiyin FC’s head coach Thomas Brdaric reckons the Thursday match at G.M.C. Balayogi Athletic Stadium, Hyderabad against reigning champions Hyderabad FC will be a challenging one for his team. Brdaric feels the match will be a good harbinger of where they currently stand in the league.
Hyderabad FC is currently in second place in the standings with 10 wins in 13 matches and there is no doubt in the fact that Marina Machans will have their work cut out. Chennaiyin FC, on the other hand, is currently in seventh place with four wins in 12 matches.
The last time these two teams had met earlier in the season, Hyderabad FC had won by a margin of 3-1.
“We bounced back in a pretty good way. Now we check off the last match. We are already in preparation for the next match here in Hyderabad. A bit of a tough match. I think we will be prepared for them. We played against them twice so far and I’m looking forward to this match. We want to face them and to hurt them in a way with our abilities and try to catch points,” Brdaric said in the pre-match press conference.
The race for the top six teams has been getting exciting in the ongoing ISL 2022-23 season and it will be crucial for Chennaiyin FC to be at their best in the second phase of the league stage.
“We are following all the games. Hero ISL is an interesting league. All 11 teams can beat everybody. So we have to analyze all the teams very well in a professional way, and to give the players the maximum confidence to go in that game but now we are focused on the next match,” he added.
Brdaric admitted that playing against Hyderabad FC will be a good challenge for them as the opposition is in good form.
“To play against Hyderabad FC is a good challenge for us and to see where we are (at the moment). Hyderabad FC is a very experienced team, with a very good coach. They are already two to three steps ahead of Chennaiyin FC because they are already in the third year (with the core team) and you can see the signature (philosophy) of the coach and the coaching staff,” he said
“In the last half year, we worked very hard to be competitive with those teams. We want to compete with them. On Thursday, we will see how far we are. I know that our players will give (their) maximum and then we will see which results we can catch”, he concluded.
