In a battle in the lower rungs of the Indian Super League table, eighth-placed Chennaiyin FC will face wooden spoon holders Odisha FC on Sunday. At prima facie, this game can be identified as the Super Machans’ first shot at recovery this season but Odisha FC, who will be coming into the game, riding on a 4-2 win against Kerala Blasters will pose some challenge. 

Chennaiyin FC is set to play two legs against Odisha before they engage in a three-match stretch, against East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, and then table-toppers Mumbai City FC. Chennai, so far have had a disappointing season, winning only two matches in 2020-21. To make matters worse for the Super Machans, captain Rafael Crivellaro has been ruled out for the season due to an ankle injury.

Chennaiyin are going into the match after their worst display of the season, a 1-4 defeat at the hands of Hyderabad FC on Tuesday. Head coach Csaba Laszlo would be desperate to return to winning ways and he would be hoping to set the combinations right on Sunday. 

“I think the last game’s performance was bad. We made a lot of mistakes. Ffter this game, everybody in my team has to go and think about it. We have to analyze the mistakes and we have to go back to where we were before,” said Laszlo.

Chennaiyin’s foreign players have dished out underwhelming performances so far. They have just three goals between them, the lowest by any foreign contingent. Laszlo will hope for more from them against Odisha.

Hyderabad head coach Stuart Baxter’s team, meanwhile, will be hoping to pick up from the 4-2 win over Kerala in their last match on Thursday. They may still be rooted to the bottom of the table, but a win over Chennaiyin will take them to within two points of their opponents.

They also seem to have found an unlikely creative force in Jerry Mawihmingthanga, who now leads the ISL charts for assists along with Hugo Boumous.

“It’s important to the degree that we needed to get those three points to give the players the belief and the confidence to continue the roll around,” said Baxter.

“The players did a fantastic job in retaining their confidence and their belief despite the results being against us sometimes quite unluckily. But, we do need that to gain a little bit of momentum and now hopefully, we can kick on.”

The match between Chennaiyin FC and Odisha FC starts at 5PM at the GMC stadium on Sunday.