I-League: Indian Arrows, Aizawl eye first win

Indian Arrows and Aizawl FC are winless so far and lost their previous fixtures against Gokulam Kerala and Neroca FC respectively.

Published : Dec 08, 2019 19:07 IST

Indian Arrows head coach Shanmugam Venkatesh (extreme left) expects Aizawl FC come hard against his team.

All India Football Federation's developmental side Indian Arrows will be hoping for better fortunes when it hosts Aizawl FC at the Tilak Maidan on Monday.

Both teams will be eyeing their first win after the Arrows suffered a 1-0 defeat against Gokulam Kerala, while Aizawl went down by the same margin to Neroca FC in its previous match, having also draw with Mohun Bagan in its first match.

At the pre-match press conference, Indian Arrows head coach Shanmugam Venkatesh said: “The game we played against Gokulam was good and we played really well - but in patches. In some parts of the game, we were very good but there are still a lot of things to improve and work upon.”

Read: Ten-man Gokulam downs Arrows, goes top of table

“Aizawl are a good side and have quite a few quality players. Their coach Stanley Rozario is very experienced. They will come out fighting after their result in the first two matches and we are working hard to get ready for the game," Venkatesh added.

Aizawl FC manager Stanley Rozario said: “The match was played at a high tempo and both teams played with tremendous fighting spirit. Neroca scored the first goal through a free-kick and my players missed some scoring chances. In the second half, we dominated the game in all aspects and created many chances but couldn’t find the target.”

He further added: “It’s a long journey from Imphal to Goa. But, we won’t want to give any excuse and looking forward to the match against Indian Arrows and hopefully, my team will score goals and collect nothing less than three.”