Lobera-less Goa meets Hyderabad

Goa will look to keep the momentum in order to not lose out in the race for the top spot, which guarantees a berth in the AFC Champions League group stage next season. The management took the decision to part ways with Lobera and has appointed Clifford Miranda as the interim coach with Derrick Pereira as the technical director.

“My focus is on keeping the team together. We have the quality but our mindset has to be right. Despite the current situation, the players were positive when I stepped on to the training field. I respect the players and the way they responded to the training. The players have shown the same attitude on all days and that gives me a lot of satisfaction,” said Pereira in the pre-match presser.

Goa has been the most prolific team this season with 32 goals in 15 matches. This will be the penultimate home game of the season for Goa and it will look to iron out any issues before the play-offs. Midfielder Edu Bedia is suspended for having collected four bookings but Ahmed Jahouh will return to provide Goa with a cushion ahead of the four-man defence.

It must be mentioned that amongst the top three teams, Goa has conceded the most goals – 20 – with Bengaluru FC and ATK letting in only nine and 10 respectively. Meanwhile, Hyderabad has six points from 15 matches and needs another four to avoid having the worst points tally after 18 matches in an ISL edition.

What would concern interim coach Javier Lopez is that his team hasn’t kept a clean sheet all through the campaign and has the worst defensive record with 33 goals leaked in. HFC is coming into the game on the back of a 0-1 defeat to Bengaluru, a game in which it missed a penalty and was denied on a couple of occasions by goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.

Hyderabad has loaned out players in the January transfer window but has roped in a few members such as defender Souvik Chakrabarti and Hitesh Sharma. “Hitesh is a young and smart player. He knows how we play in between the lines. He has good technical ability,” said Spaniard Lopez.