MARGAO
Goa head into Thursday's match in the 76th National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy against Tamil Nadu with a big ask in the last encounter of Group III at Kokrajhar in Assam.
Goa (8 points) have to win their final match by a big margin and hope table toppers Nagaland (10 points) lose against Arunachal Pradesh to finish on top. If Nagaland draw against Arunachal, Goa will have to defeat Tamil Nadu by a margin of three or more goals to finish on top and qualify as group winners.
"The mood in the camp is upbeat and the boys are raring to go. It is a massive game for us. We will look to play our natural game and more importantly stick to the basics," said Goa coach Norberto Gonsalves. "Now, we are completely focused on tomorrow's game. My communication has been clear and we are talking football language. We are approaching from different angles and from my side all the angles are positive," said Gonsalves.
"Needing a win against the cellar side Tamil Nadu can sometimes be a tricky situation to be in. But that's where we find ourselves currently. We will look to put in a strong performance and hopefully win the match tomorrow," said Gonsalves. "We have nothing else except to focus on our final standing. We don’t want to lose,” said Gonsalves. “We had done good work even against Nagaland (in the 0-0 draw in their previous match). We are not focusing on results, but on the process,” said Gonsalves
When asked about the cold climate in Assam, Gonsalves said his team had acclimatised to the conditions well. Now, his wards need to put in one last big effort to have a shot at qualification to the main round.
