There’s a nice sense of camaraderie between Kerala Blasters and Chennaiyin FC.
The two, separated by five rungs with Blasters in the third spot and Chennaiyin in eighth, play an Indian Super League (ISL) southern derby at the Nehru Stadium on Tuesday but if you step into the teams’ hotel you may not realise that.
“It’s a different feeling because we are in the same hotel, last night I saw players from our club and Chennaiyin having dinner together,” said Blasters head coach Ivan Vukomanovic on Monday.
“Being like that two days together before that kind of game gives you a funny feeling. So, maybe we’ll organise a meeting for all of us before the game, maybe we’d go by one bus to the stadium. There’s something special about these southern games. I hope tomorrow, we’ll all go out for our fans, play a nice game and achieve a good result.”
Despite losing three of their last four games, the Blasters are almost in the safe zone for the six-team playoffs but the side had been hit by viral fever.
“It started somewhere before the Mumbai game (Jan. 8, Blasters lost 0-4) and we were always waking up and waiting for the medical report to see who was down with fever that morning, at least 15 players went through it. This morning, there were some issues with Giannou but he might be alright,” said Vukomanovic.
With that being the situation for the home side, Chennaiyin head coach Thomas Brdaric said, “it’s a good time to play the Blasters. We had some bad luck in the last few matches but tomorrow is another challenge, we’ll try to use our next few games to reach that sixth place.”
“We are friends but we’ll try to beat each other in those 90 minutes.”
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