Picture courtesy: Mumbai City FC

Mumbai City FC face Atlético de Kolkata in their final 2014 Hero Indian Super League home game at the D.Y. Patil Stadium today.

The bottom placed Mumbaikars need to win the encounter to keep their slim mathematical chances to qualify for semi-finals alive and must hope that other results go in their favour. But head coach Peter Reid knows that his side has a mountain to climb and that they performed poorly in the recent games.

“I will make no excuses for our form. We have been very, very poor,” the former England international told during the pre-match press conference on Saturday. “I just want the team to go out and play for the fans tomorrow. It is our last home game and we would want to end it on a high.”

“I am not looking at mathematical permutations and combinations. As a coach, I am just going to try and win the game with as many goals as possible.”

“I do not mean this as an excuse, but our main players just have not played enough,” Reid continued. “(André) Moritz and (Nicolas) Anelka have had a stop-start season. Both of them have trained lightly and we will assess them tomorrow again to know if they will be fit to start. Freddie Ljungberg is not fit, so he will not play. However, Anelka has a really good chance of being involved in the game, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.”

“I am not surprised at the level of competition. When I first arrived here, I assessed the scenario and was aware that every team would have to work really hard in order to qualify for the semi-finals. Take the game between Chennaiyin FC and FC Goa as an example. I thought that Chennai would go on and win it. But the ISL has surprised us again and you have to take your hat off to the teams that are at the top.”

“I have always put my teams out to win a football match and sadly, we have not been able to come away with the results that we might have liked. Similarly, though Kolkata are a good side, we will be looking to beat them and hopefully prevent them from doing the double over us.”