ISL 2019-20 | Hyderabad FC will be our toughest game yet, admits Carles Cuadrat

Unbeaten Bengaluru FC travels to Hyderabad to face a depleted Hyderabad FC at the G.M.C. Balayogi Athletic Stadium on Friday. Carles Cuadrat’s men have two wins and three draws and are second on the table with nine points while Hyderabad are the bottom of the table with three points. A win against Hyderabad in the southern derby will take the defending Champions to the top of the table, however, Bengaluru head coach Cuadrat admits it won't be easy.

“Everybody can express their opinion in football. But I belong to the sports culture that when we lose a game, we congratulate the other team, and we put the eyes in our own house and not in the house of the opponent. I say that because I heard that 'there was only one team on the pitch' and these kind of things. Coaches should give tactical analysis, and if you see the game, (Bartholomew) Ogbeche didn't even get one chance to shoot. Gurpreet (Singh Sandhu) didn't go to the floor, not even one time. We saw Raphael Augusto arrive into the box completely alone two times. We saw in the set-pieces how the best Indian striker in Hero ISL history arrived in the penalty box completely alone."

Cuadrat also hailed his captain Sunil Chhetri who scored his second consecutive goal of the season after misfiring in the first three games, “When you are one of the best strikers in the country, you have to contribute a lot to the game of the team. He’s doing his job. He has scored in the last two games, but if you remember, he had a very clear chance in the first game as well. He always does his job to create chances.” the coach said.

The Spaniard also heaped praise on youngster Ashique Kuruniyan who joined the Blues last summer and added, “He’s a talent. He still has to learn a lot of things. After two months working with him, I cannot say that he has changed a lot in the way he is playing. What I can say is that he understands what he is required for the team. Step by step, he is trying to do the things we are asking him to do. I’m sure in the next years he is going to give us and Indian football a lot.”