East Bengal FC aim to register maiden win against Hyderabad FC

East Bengal FC will host Hyderabad FC in their seventh Hero Indian Super League 2022-23 home fixture at Kolkata’s Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan on Friday (January 20).

The last time the two sides faced each other, the Red & Gold brigade lost 0-2 at Hyderabad’s GMC Balayogi Athletic Stadium.

EBFC currently occupy the ninth spot in the league table with 12 points from 13 games (4 wins and 9 defeats).

After bagging their first home win of the season (2-1 vs Bengaluru FC) on December 30, they lost their next two matches 1-3 and 1-2 to Odisha FC and Jamshedpur FC, respectively.

HFC, meanwhile, are chasing the top spot and trailing current league toppers Mumbai City FC by 4 points after 14 games.

Manolo Marquez and Co. dropped 2 points in their previous match against Chennaiyin FC that ended in a 1-1 stalemate.

The Nizams are undefeated in their last 6 games, having scored 18 goals.

Speaking to the media ahead of the reverse fixture against HFC, EBFC Head Coach Stephen Constantine said, “We have 7 games left.

In many of the games, we were in good positions.

I would say we lost ourselves in those games by making individual mistakes.

We must continue to play and fight, and try to win as many points as we can.

That’s why we are here. As I said at the start of the season, this is a rebuilding project.”

EBFC’s Brazilian forward Cleiton Silva, who’s the league’s leading scorer so far with 9 goals, said, “We have to show more competitiveness.

We can’t keep losing games by making the same mistakes.

We have to change our attitude for tomorrow’s game against Hyderabad FC.

We have been training well for the last 3 days and have had several team meetings.

We must handle the pressure better. We are not as bad as the results are showing.

We have a decent squad, but all of us need to improve.”