Chennaiyin FC forward, Esmael Goncalves and defender Enes Sipovic will miss the next few games for their team owing to the injuries which they sustained in the last match against Mumbai City FC.
The depleted Marina side will now miss their services on Sunday (13/12/2020) against the “Undefeated” North East United FC (NEUFC) at the Tilak Maidan Football Stadium, Goa.
However, Chennai might be bolstered with the arrival of their star midfielder Anirudh Thapa who is all set to return from the ankle injury. His return would generate a glimmer of hope for the weary squad and will also excite the fans.
Before their next game, Chennaiyin FC Gaffer, Csaba Laszlo addressed the media and threw some light on the injured players in the pre-match press conference. He said, “Thapa was more or less ready for the last game but we didn’t risk him in the pitch. He is now training with the team and looks good for the next game”
“For Isma, we thought it was a serious injury but it is not serious as it seemed. According to my medical team, he will be ready in the next 14 days and Sipovic will take seven days to recover” He added.
Laszlo’s team deserved a victory for their exceptional performance in the last game against the Islanders. Unfortunately, they were robbed of three possible penalties due to poor decisions from the Referees.
When asked about the Refereeing standards and inclusion of VAR (Video Assistant Referee) in ISL, the 56-year-old Head Coach stated, “My team in the last two games, suffered from funny decisions. It is really not acceptable; I don’t want to talk about this problem because everybody looks at the TV and they know what happened”
“Now I have to concentrate on my team and my opponents. The next games are coming very quickly, so I just want to focus on my team. I hope that the refereeing standard will get better. If it is possible to bring VAR, definitely I’m all for it”, He further commented.
For the first time in this season, the Men in Blue will be playing this game early at the twilight and the Hungarian tactician, Laszlo felt that the heat and humidity won’t have an impact on the players.
He told, “On one side, it is better to play in the Evening (7.30 pm) because it is not so hot. Every single game until now has been played in the evening but on the other side; we always had our training sessions around 5 pm. So I think that the heat and humidity won’t affect us too much”.
Finally, the CFC Chief spoke about NEUFC and shared his thoughts on his next opponent. “NorthEast United had a very good start and they are a very stable team. They have scored goals against every opponent so we must be prepared for that challenge. We have our own style and strengths and I would like to use it against them”, he concluded.
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