To break into the top four, Odisha FC will have to beat Bartholomew Ogbeche and Hyderabad FC in the 2021-22 Indian Super League at the Tilak Maidan Stadium on Thursday. Hyderabad are currently at the top of the table and will remain so until Chennaiyin FC beat Bengaluru on Wednesday. As for the Nizams, the league’s top scorer Ogbeche is under fire to say the least. The Nigerian put up a treble against SC East Bengal on the second day, putting almost everything in the back of the net that was thrown at him.
Ogbeche’s hat-trick that propelled Hyderabad back into pole position ensured that his tally of goals went up to 12, bringing him to the shop window in the Golden Boot Race.
Having achieved another record, Ogbeche will now aim to set the next big record – Hero becoming the leading goal scorer in ISL history and the first player to score 50 goals in the competition. He currently has 48 goals.
Meanwhile, Odisha have kept two clean sheets in a row, and this will bring some relief to interim coach Kino Garcia. Arshdeep Singh has composed under the bar and so is his backline, though his litmus test is against Ogbeche’s Hyderabad on Thursday.
Odisha has picked up momentum for them in the last four matches where they collected two wins, one draw and one defeat from Kerala Blasters.
“We know Hyderabad can play aggressive football and have an experienced coach. But, we will use our weapons to dodge them. It will be exciting for us to win but we realize there are nine matches left. We think we can reach the semi-finals but we want to build up fast and be ready for the final games.”
For Hyderabad, only two losses in 12 matches mean they are in good shape and ready to make it to the playoffs. In that pursuit, head coach Manolo Marquez would be confident that his team can take full points from Odisha’s game, especially after their dominance against SC East Bengal. Not only Ogbeche but the defense was also looking good. Ashish Rai was impressive as ever and Aniket Jadhav also came to the party not only for his goal but for the entire industry.
The last time the two sides met, Hyderabad defeated Odisha 6-1. He said, ‘The score may have been 6-1, but when they leveled, they threatened us. There is not much difference between the teams in the league. He has since changed manager, but has kept the same style,” Marquez said before the game.
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