XtraTime Web Desk: East Bengal head coach Alejandro Menendez Garcia expressed his displeasure about the schedule of the I League as East Bengal has to play three matches in just seven days.
East Bengal’s I League hopes are still alive as Churchill Brothers defeated league topper Chennai City FC in their home ground.
Now East Bengal must win tomorrow’s game against Minerva Punjab. Alejandro Menendez said, “It is very important to win the match against Minerva Punjab because we still have the chance to win the I-League. We now have that extra motivation to win this tie as we are closer to the title.”
He also thinks that his team has improved a lot in the second phase of the league and want to continue to work hard as they want to lift the title.
He said, “Our team is playing well. We are playing really well in the second leg and our game is improving every day. We want to continue this and try to win this important match.”
He again expressed his displeasure about his team’s compact scheduling of matches. The Kolkata club is playing their third consecutive match in just seven days.
“I said this before the Real Kashmir match that less than 72 hours before a match is not enough for players and also for the coaching staff to prepare for the next match. But now this is the situation in front of us and we have to try and win the match. But this is not good for the I-League. Not only for us but for every team. It is not the perfect situation,” said the East Bengal boss.
Star players like Jobby Justin and Salam Ranjan Singh likely to move to ATK for the next season. Though, East Bengal coach wants to retain those players. East Bengal boss said, “I cannot talk about that because it is about the contract of players. But the players if they want to play elsewhere they can play. If I continue to coach East Bengal next season I would want them to play for us because they are important players for us and they are good players. We will see what happens. I don’t have any information to talk about this.”
Minerva coach Sachin Badadhe is very much confident ahead of the match against Red and Golds. He said, “We are pretty confident about tomorrow’s match because East Bengal will be playing their third match in seven days and they will be tired. We are ready to go for all the three points.”
He added, “You saw last game where Chennai City could not handle the pressure and lost to Churchill Brothers. Hopefully, East Bengal will also face the same thing against us.”