FC Goa target top-four spot against FC Pune City

Languishing at the lowly seventh position in the standings, hosts FC Goa will aim for a win against FC Pune City here Saturday that can help them reach the play-off spots for the first time in the Indian Super League (ISL) football competition.

After a stuttering start to the campaign, FC Goa have hit upon some form, taking four points from their last two matches away and will have the added incentive of avenging a first leg 0-2 defeat against Pune.

Pune are better placed ahead of the match, in the fifth spot with 12 points from nine matches.

But their recent form may be a worry for coach Franco Colamba, having managed just a point from their last two contests, both away, and have to cautious against the attacking might of a team coached by Brazilian legend Zico.

Having an offensive-minded coach have allowed Goa to display and an eye-pleasing brand of football wih an inclination to search for goals from the very beginning of a match in most of their games. But profligacy from their strikers has been their biggest obstacle in winning matches.

Zico has expressed repeated frustration at the faliure of his attackers to convert clear-cut but with three successive home matches, the first of which is Saturday, could finally turn the tide in the favour of his bungling strikers.

Both teams have scorers well aversed to Indian football in Tolgay Ozbey (FC Goa) and Dudu Omagbemi (FC Pune City). But it is the performance of the men supplying them with final passes, Andre Santos and Robet Pires for Goa and Pune's Kostas Katsouranis that could determine the outcome of the match.