"The good thing is that we created chances," said Vicuna. "The bad thing is that we did not score. We are working to improve in this aspect. Every game is different. We respect Odisha because they did not deserve to lose the last match against East Bengal. They have good players. So we will focus on having a good game, creating chances and taking them."
Odisha coach Stuart Baxter agreed with Vicuna's assessment that recent results were not a fair reflection of how his team has been playing.
"The biggest issue we have right now is that despite playing well in most games, we haven't been able to turn it into results," Baxter said. "Simply putting the ball into your net and stopping the ball from going into your opponent's net — how we do that and how we do that more efficiently? Despite playing reasonably well in most games, and dominating at times, those are not being translated into results. That can damage belief."
"The first thing that has to happen is that the players do not lose belief. The tweaks that we need to do, we are aware of them and we are working on them. That's why I think we're improving," he added.
All you need to know about the Kerala Blasters Vs Odisha FC match:
Match: 50th match of ISL 2020-21 between Kerala Blasters and Odisha FC
Date: January 7 (Thursday), 2021.
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Venue: GMC Stadium, Bambolim, Goa
TV Listing: Star Sports 1/HD, Star Sports 2/HD (English); Star Sports Hindi 1/HD, Star Sports 3, Star Gold 2 (Hindi), Asianet Plus, Asianet Movies (Malayalam); Star Sports Bangla; Star Sports Kannada; Star Sports Tamil; Star Sports Telugu and Star Sports Marathi.
Live Streaming: Online streaming will be available on Disney+ Hotstar VIP and JioTV.
Likely XIs:
Kerala Blasters: Albino Gomes; Nishu Kumar, Sandeep Singh, Bakary Kone, Jessel Carneiro; Jeakson Thounaojam, Vicente Gomez, Rahul KP; Sahal Abdul Samad, Facundo Pereyra, Jordan Murray.
Odisha FC: Arshdeep Singh; Hendry Antonay, Gaurav Bora, Steven Taylor, Shubham Sarangi; Jacob Tratt, Cole Alexander, Daniel Lalhlimpuia; Jerry Mawihmingthanga, Manuel Onwu, Diego Mauricio.