Chennai: Heading into their last preliminary match of the Indian Super League football tournament, on Tuesday, Chennaiyin FC coach cum marquee player Marco Materazzi said that the pressure will be on fourth-placed Delhi Dynamos and not on the table-toppers.
All the eight teams have just one match to go and the semi-finalists line-up will be decided soon. Chennaiyin are sitting pretty but Delhi's hopes hang by the thread with Kerala Blasters and FC Pune City just a point away from the Harm van Veldhoven-coached side.
Materazzi said on the eve of the encounter, "I want to think tonight because the pressure is on opponents tomorrow.
We would like to finish on top but minimum we finish in first or second place. And, then we will play the semifinal. It is okay for us to finish first or second."
"We lost 1-4 to Delhi last time, I remember but tomorrow is a new game and we need to win tomorrow to improve our semi-final bid," Materazzi said.
"We lost the last game to Goa. We have one object and ours is the final. So, we will train for the semi-final but we cannot lose the new game tomorrow because I told the guys they beat us but may one time we can commit mistake but second time we should not," he added.
On the other hand, Veldhovan said, "We will try to take the last three points which we need for sure. We do not have to counter the other one because we have to counter our own.
The confidence is there in my players and we believe in that and we will try to win the match tomorrow to move in to semifinal."
"We already knew it about three four games before that we need to win in our last match. In the first half, we had nothing to lose because we were in the eighth position. Now we have come to the third position we will try to make the most and produce our best performance as high as possible. Fourth position is enough but we are going to do it to make the third position. It is nothing special at this moment as we will play with lot of confidence and try to go for the win," he added.
Meanwhile, Gustavo Marmentini Dos Santos, a marquee star of the Dynamos said, "The team had a rough patch in the first half of the league phase but we have done really well in the last 4 games. We just want to get to the semi finals. We always play to win.
It is definitely going to be a difficult game. Chennai has many strong players, but we are also in good form. I do want to score tomorrow but the most important thing for us is to win and qualify for the semi finals."
On his own performance in the championship so far, Santos said, "I think I have really enjoyed playing in the last few games. I am very happy that I scored, but the most important thing is that I have been able to help my team get the wins we deserve. It was also really amazing to win hero of the match awards in four games in a row, and I want to get one more tomorrow too."
Talking about his relationship with teammate Alessandro del Piero, Santos said, "There is no one like him. He has won everything that can be won in the world of football. He is a true professional, and he talks to me and helps me a lot. Del Piero is the best."
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