ISL: Hyderabad eye first win at home against Bengaluru FC

Hyderabad hold the advantage in the fixture winning their last four outings in the ISL, their joint longest winning streak in the league

Hyderabad: Hyderabad FC are ready to host Bengaluru FC at GMC Balayogi Athletic Stadium on Saturday. It has been a challenging season so far for the Nizams who are winless so far and eyeing for their first win of the season in the home clash against The Blues.

The home side will welcome two of the former HFC players Halicharan Narzary and Rohit Danu. Bengaluru FC are fresh from a 3-2 loss at Odisha and are currently sitting 10th in the ISL standings and having difficulty this season, losing as many games as Hyderabad from five games.

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Hyderabad hold the advantage in the fixture winning their last four outings in the ISL, their joint longest winning streak in the league. Hyderabad are languishing at the bottom of the table and have just a single point to their name, which they collected against Mumbai City FC in the previous game.

Facing a 10-men home side, a struggling Hyderabad side conceded first but managed to equalise at the 96th minute of the game courtesy of an own goal from The Islanders in a frustrating outing.

Speaking about the previous game, head coach Thangboi Singto made it clear that he wasn’t happy with his players’ attitude, particularly the way they celebrated the equalising goal at the very end. “The players have been told the result is not good enough, we should have done a lot better than what we performed.”

“Instead of celebrating the goal, the players should have been quick to restart the game and probably tried to score another goal to win it,” The 49-year-old added.

Speaking about the preparation ahead of facing Sunil Chettri lead side Bengaluru FC, head coach Singto accepts it is a big challenge for his side, stating, “BFC are a good team, who have the best Indian footballer – captain Sunil, the best goalkeeper of the country – Gurmeet Singh Sandhu.”

“However, it is a good motivation for us to play against the best and we are ready for the challenge as I expect good results for Hyderabad,” he added. In a battle between two sides in the bottom end of the table, the season could well and truly start for the Nizams on Saturday when they face Simon Grayson’s team.

“Players are coming much more prepared and fit for the match. We have our plans set and are eyeing to execute correctly to get a good result,” Singto concluded.