Sporting looking for home advantage against Aizawl FC

Sporting Clube de Goa will look to capitalise on the home advantage when they face Aizawl FC in the second leg of the Federation Cup football semifinals at Nehru Stadium here tomorrow.
Both the teams failed to score any goal in the first leg as the semifinals in Aizawl.
Aizawl FC, who got relegated from the I-League, have been playing well in the Federation Cup and have upset I-League champions Bengaluru FC twice to reach the semi-finals and would be looking for nothing but a win tomorrow.
Aizawl coach Jahar Das conceded that his side committed a mistake by playing defensive in the first leg at home.

"Our team failed to capitalize the home advantage. It was our mistake to play defensive game in the first half as we could not get the early result. It was only in the second half that we went offensive and put the pressure against Sporting," he said.
"In the end, we could not score. We have the advantage as we have not conceded a goal at home. Tomorrow, we will try to play attacking game and score early goal which will put the pressure on the home side. The boys know the situation and only a win can take us to the finals. They are all prepared against Sporting tomorrow," stated Das.

Asked how the team was playing so well after they got relegated from the I-League, Das blamed the previous foreign coach for not playing a defensive game, which he said was important for the team not to lose points.

"The earlier coach adopted attacking style without guarding our defence which saw our team losing matches in the beginning. It's only after I took over that we tried to adopt defensive game. We collected points but it was too late," he said.
Joel Sunday has been in-form upfront and Aizawl FC will be banking on him for an early lead.
Sporting coach Mateus Costa acknowledged that tomorrow's match is a do or die battle for both the teams

"With all the players fit except Rowllin Borges, we will go all out for a win and try to put early pressure to fetch an early goal. It is going to be a tough match as our rival are playing well and we should put cent per cent effort if we are to come out victors," stated Costa
Sporting will be without their in-form midfielder Rowllin Borges due to injury he suffered in the last match against Aizawl.