Ahead of Hyderabad FC’s clash against Mumbai City FC, Manolo Marquez speaks about the difficulty of the game, injury issues, the importance of the previous win and more…

On the series of results leading into this game…

There are a lot of people who think draws are not a good result but they are obviously better than losing the game. When you win, the draws you picked up seem that much better. Imagine, if after beating Odisha and drawing three games consecutively, we lost to East Bengal in the last game, the three draws would have looked really bad.

If you play difficult games, and cannot score, a draw is a decent result. But sometimes, to win, you need to take risks, but still keep your discipline, to give yourself more chances to win.

On lack of clean sheets in the last three games…

This is football. We kept two clean sheets before conceding in the last three games, twice in the last. But for me, the most important thing is to win the game.

We conceded the first goal in the last two games, against ATK Mohun Bagan and SCEB, but on both occasions, we came back to take a draw and a win in these games. This is a very difficult thing to do in football but my team showed they are ready for it, which is what is really important.

On preparations for MCFC…

We are facing a really good team on Sunday, for me, one of the favourites for the league phase. But like against other teams, I am sure we will have chances to win this game. Winning and losing only depends on our performance on the night. Though the quality in the opposition ranks is high, we will prepare for this game in the same way we do for all other games.

Mumbai City, like us, are a team that like to keep the ball for long periods. So, when they have the ball, we will have to be prepared and defend well and provide cover for each other when needed.

On missing chances…

This is the most difficult thing in football. If we have taken all our chances, we would have probably been at the top of the league table, but it is normal for every team to miss chances. But we need to work on every playing phase, every ball, and in every training session, and it is not easy.

We took 18 shots against East Bengal, with eight on target. Eight shots on target is a really good return and I am really happy but yes, we need to take our chances against tough teams like Mumbai City FC.

On team news…

Yes, we had only three overseas players playing in the last game and all three of them should be ready for this game as well. We hope to have the others ready soon but maybe not for this game. But we have a lot of confidence on our Indian players and believe we can fight MCFC with the players that are available.