Kerala Blasters

Kerala Blasters at a practice session in Kochi on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT

East Bengal players during practice.
| Photo Credit:
THULASI KAKKAT

After a weak show in its ISL season-opener against Punjab FC, Kerala Blasters will be desperate to get back to winning ways when it takes on East Bengal FC at the Nehru Stadium here on Sunday.

But once again, Blasters will be without their midfield general Adrian Luna who is yet to recover fully from his illness. Without Luna, Blasters looked a disjointed side in a 1-2 loss against Punjab.

“We came out pretty poor, it was a hard loss in the dying seconds, hard to handle but we have to move forward,” said Blasters head coach Mikael Stahre on Saturday.

“There are too many things that we need to focus on. We have to cross the halfway and more often, with control, so that we can bring more numbers higher up, create more crosses and have more players inside the box. We have to play like a home team. We have amazing fans, we have to play with a lot of energy.”

Both Blasters and EBFC lost their season-opener but the Kochi side could be under more pressure.

“We we have to do a good job in front of the Blasters fans. Kerala is going to be under pressure, they have to fight a lot too,” said EBFC coach Carles Cuadrat,