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Hyderabad FC take on Bengaluru FC in their fifth ISL match of the season at the Maidaan in Gachibowli on Saturday (November 4). Coming into this clash on the back of an opportune 1-1 result against Mumbai City FC last week, the Nawabs will be keen on picking up all three points on offer.
Simon Grayson's Blues, however, were defeated by Odisha FC in their previous game, which was also played away from home by them.
Bengaluru will want to capitalize on the turmoil that Hyderabad are in at the moment, given that the Yellow and Blacks are ranked in the last position of the league table.
Hyderabad have a stellar record against Bengaluru in the head-to-head, having won four of the nine matches played between the two. Bengaluru have only been victorious on two occasions against the Nawabs in the past.
Hyderabad's head coach Thangboi Singto seemed optimistic about his team's chances when speaking to the media on Friday.
"After playing Mumbai, in terms of results, are we happy as a team? Probably not, but we are happy with the effort and the way the boys gave their all in that game. It is commendable because we are talking about transition and new players coming in but for us, as a team, what everybody believes is you can easily win against a team with 10 men, but it's not easy to because as a team when you are down with 10 men, players run more, they work hard and that's the quality Mumbai has," said Singto.
"We were not satisfied with just one point against Mumbai. It doesn't matter whom we face in the ISL - we always play for the Hyderabad crest and try to win," he added.
"We have everybody training well, responding to the tactical changes we want to bring in. Bengaluru are a very good team. They have the best Indian player as a captain (Sunil Chhetri), they have the best Indian goalkeeper (Gurpreet Singh Sandhu) and it is a good challenge to play against the best. The way we have prepared for this game, it should be a good day in terms of the result," he elaborated.
"We want the players to be confident when they are on the pitch" - Thangboi Singto
Hyderabad have been struggling to score goals, and this is what has bugged them all season. Even the sole goal that they bagged against Mumbai City last Saturday (October 28) was an own goal caused by a deflection from centre-back Tiri.
To be sure, the likes of Joe Knowles and Mohammad Yasir have constantly created chances, but the Nawabs would want to convert more of these.
"I wouldn't say that we lack in confidence but it's more of the pressure of losing the first three games. When you see a man down, you think you can take advantage of the opponent but the thing is - did we try hard enough against Mumbai? I would say yes. Should we have tried to go all out and win the game? Yes. It was not how we wanted for but in terms of mentality, it was good," said Singto.
"Definitely, we can get better, because once we score a goal, we should be trying to score another one. These are the little things that we need to fine-tune and learn from. We want the players to be confident when they are on the pitch, confident of the team around them and confident that they will do better," he added.
