“It’s the Group of Death or the Spanish group as all of the coaches are Spanish like me,” Bengaluru FC head coach Gerard Zaragoza said during a virtual interaction on Thursday involving gaffers of the four teams who will clash with one another in two Group D fixtures of Super Cup in Bhubaneswar on Thursday.
While FC Goa will take on I-League debutants and playoff winners Inter Kashi in the afternoon game, hosts and defending champions Odisha FC will face off against Bengaluru in front of the evening crowd at Kalinga Stadium.
“It has been a long season for us playing in three competitions. But we won the trophy here last time and we are excited for the chance to win it once again in front of the home crowd,” Odisha FC coach Sergio Lobera said during the interaction.
With their 13-match unbeaten run in all competitions this season as well as the advantage of playing at home in a competition where teams have had very little time for preparation and acclimatisation — with FC Goa reaching the Odisha capital only on Thursday evening — Odisha will be one of the favourites to clinch another AFC Champions League spot.
Add to that the fact that their opposition on Friday will miss the services of talismans like Sunil Chhetri and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu to national duty.
However, Lobera was not ready to dwell on them. “This is a new competition where we’ll get to field six foreigners. It’s the same for everyone and I think every team has the same chance to win the trophy,” said the Spaniard, who would hope for an encore of lifting his first trophy in India with FC Goa in 2019.
