NEW DELHI: After a drab draw in their previous meeting, Chennaiyin FC and Odisha FC get reacquainted in the space of a couple of days as they face off at the GMC Stadium in Bambolim on Wednesday.
Points are crucial for both sides as the two teams are languishing in the bottom four. Odisha are dead last with only six points from 10 games, Chennaiyin are eighth with 11 points from 10 games.
Sunday's meeting saw the two-time champs play true to form as the recurrent theme of missing chances reared its ugly head once again. Rahim Ali missed two golden opportunities while Jakub Sylvestr was guilty of missing one himself. With their chief creative force and inspirational skipper Rafael Crivellaro out for the season, the other players need to up their game significantly.
The two-time champs have netted the least goals in the league so far and have now not scored in half the games that they have played.
"I don't want to say that we created the most chances in the league but somehow we didn't score enough goals. If you don't score goals, it's very difficult to win games. You cannot always only defend and expect to be without mistakes at the back. We are organised at the back but I wish we score the chances that we create," coach Csaba Laszlo stressed.
Chennaiyin will also be looking to get a first win over Odisha, having only managed two draws besides a defeat against them so far.
Odisha might be bottom of the pile but they are now unbeaten in two games and have given indications that they are starting to turn around their season. Coach Stuart Baxter admitted that there is a chance both teams might cancel out each other as the fixture comes so closely after the last meeting but he added that his team needs to now find some sort of consistency so that they can go on a run.
"The only thing I would say is that it's going to be difficult for both teams in terms of the closeness (days in between games) in refreshing and actual scenarios of the teams. We just played a 0-0 draw. Both teams will have their own difficulties. We weren't satisfied with the results but in many games we have shown that we have been better than what the result showed. So finding some consistency and identity is probably the best way to stabilise our results," he averred.