After getting overwhelmed by Chennaiyin FC 0-3 last week, NorthEast United FC's lalrindika Ralte wishes not to repeat the same mistakes against Delhi Dynamos at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here on Saturday.
"After playing good football in our first game, we lost 0-3 against Chennai and it was a big setback for us, we couldn't get ourselves out of that problem throughout the match," said the NEUFC winger after the final practice session on Friday. "But we wish to learn from the mistakes we made in that match and hope not to repeat them against Delhi tomorrow (on Saturday)."
Ralte, popularly known as 'Dika' in Indian football fraternity, felt weather change could have affected their performance as players failed to acclimatise to weather and fell sick.
"We were not at our 100 per cent for the game. Change in weather could be one of the reasons as some of the players were down with fever and some got injured. So the weather change did affect our performance in Chennai," said the Indian international.
NEUFC has been playing without their star defensive midfielder from last season in Rowllin Borges, who has been sitting out since day one on ISl 4 due to an injury picked during national duties. Dika is eagerly awaiting his return to the starting eleven.
"I am not sure when Rowllin will be ready to return but I am eager to see him return and play in the starting XI. He was an important player for NEUFC last season and has been doing well for the national team as well. He will definitely add more quality to our squad," said the former East Bengal player.
However, hinting at Borges' return, the Highlander's coach Joao de Deus said he got a complete squad at his disposal.
"One thing that changed from our last match is that I don't have any injury situations. So there are a lot of changes and we will get to play our best team tomorrow," said the Portuguese.
Talking about the Dynamos, Dika said they have been doing their homework and are aware of Delhi's star attacker in lallinzuala Chhangte. The former East Bengal player said they do have a plan in place to stop Chhangte. "Delhi are a very good team, they like to play out from the defence, we have to give our 100 per cent against them to eke out a favourable result. We watched videos of them in action and saw how effective Chhangte was. We have plans for the game and hopefully we will stop him," concluded the winger.