ISL 2017-18: Bengaluru FC coach Albert Roca counts on team's big-match experience to overcome FC Pune City in semi-final

Bengaluru FC head coach Albert Roca is hoping that his team’s big-match experience will come in handy when they face FC Pune City in the second leg of the Indian Super League (ISL) semi-final at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday. [caption id=“attachment_4384893” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Bengaluru FC head coach Albert Roca. ISL[/caption] “Yes, there’s pressure. But these boys have played big games before. We have players who have played AFC Cup semi-finals, finals, Federation Cup finals. The intention is to go out there and do our best,” Roca said. When the two teams met in the first leg of the semi-final at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune on Wednesday, they played out a drab goaless draw. Bengaluru FC couldn’t take advantage of the away goal rule in their last match but Roca thinks that his team did a decent job in keeping a clean sheet. “Pune are a good team. We wanted to score against them but we were not so good. But coming back with a goalless draw isn’t a bad result, even though having an away goal would’ve been nice. My team will look to do well in tomorrow’s fixture, regardless,” Roca said. The Bengaluru FC coach also confirmed that Harmanjot Khabra and Nishu Kumar were still recovering from injuries and so would not take part in the contest on Sunday. Furthermore, Victor Perez is suffering from a niggle, and is doubtful for Sunday’s game. FC Pune City, on the other hand, in the absence of their head coach Ranko Popovic, who was initially suspended for his comments on referees but later cleared after All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) disciplinary committee provisionally revised the decision, assistant coach Vladica Grujic addressed the press conference on Saturday. “We know our team well. We also know how good Bengaluru FC are. But we just want to do our own things. We have to make sure that we implement our plan well tomorrow. It’s just one game and we want to go out there and show how strong we are,” Grujic responded. Pune do not have any major injury concerns and Grujic mentioned with a smile that “everyone’s here” and are raring to face Bengaluru thinking only about victory.