ATK Mohun Bagan will have a tough test when they will take on the consistent Hyderabad FC side in a doubled-legged semifinals. However ATK Mohun Bagan coach Juan Ferrando has clearly stated that he will not change his style of play in the semifinals against the Nizams. The Green and Maroons finished third in the league phase, only behind Mumbai City and Hyderabad FC and a win against Odisha FC only allowed the Mariners to come this far.
They have some momentum with their last couple of wins and it will be of prime important for the team to stikc together and back each other as they take on Hyderabad FC for the first leg in the semifinals. The last time they faced Hyderabad FC, they lost but Ferrando believes that there’s no flaw in his strategies and therefore he wants his team to continue in that manner as now everything will come into implementation of the plan.
“Our plan is the same all the time, the team will try to concentrate on attack and control the spaces on attack. Our plan is the same for semi-final or even in finals, yes it is necessary to control the transition against Hyderabad FC because everybody knows what (Mohammad) Yasir, (Akash) Mishra or Joel (Chianese) are capable of. But our approach is the same all the time, try to keep the ball, progress in buildup, to be in the correct position to attack, control the space and time. This is the same plan throughout the season and some details may change but won’t change the whole plan,” Ferrando stated at the pre match press conference.
The the teams when they played each other, won their home matches by a similar scoreline of 1-0. Hugo Boumous scored for ATK Mohun Bagan whereas Bartholomew Ogbeche turned up for Hyderabad FC.
Ogbeche has been a threat for the Kolkata outfit over the years. He has scored the most goals in ISL history against them (5 goals). However Ferrando is looking beyond the Nigerian forward.
“We aren’t worried about one single player but (our focus) is on the whole team. Of course, Ogbeche is a very good player and very good scorer, not only this season, but for the last four seasons for many different teams. But our focus is on the team because we play 11 vs 11, so it’s very important to control a lot of things. It takes one opportunity for both teams to reach the final,” he added
Last season also Hyderabad FC faced ATK Mohun Bagan in a two legged clash and both the teams won their home clash but the Nizams went through to the finals because they had a bigger 3-1 win at home. Ferrando recollected those instances and feels that although it is not possible to change the course of a match in the first leg, one can control the minor details from the first leg itself.
“These two-legged semi-final have 180 minutes to play, it’s very important to control a lot of details. It’s impossible to reach the final after the first match but it is important to control the details in the first match itself because you may lose the semi-final in the first leg itself. For example, in the last season, it was difficult for us to (come back) after the 3-1 defeat against Hyderabad FC in the first leg. So It’s important to get (some points) in the first leg itself,” the Spaniard concluded.
