East Bengal, the only undefeated team so far in the I-League, will be looking to maintain the unbeaten streak in their first game of the New Year versus Churchill Brothers in Goa on Saturday.

East Bengal played their last game on December 14 and coach Alejandro Menendez Garcia is confident his wards will be able to deliver as they come back afresh.

“Our team is high on confidence. Good results have helped in this case and we are working really well together as a team.

“We will go into the game with optimism and are motivated to continue the work we have been doing,” Alejandro said.

Although Churchill Brothers were at the receiving end against Indian Arrows in their previous game, Menendez warned his boys against taking the home team lightly.

“Churchill Brothers can be threatening enough and even if they did not win the last game, I am sure they will be motivated to play well against us,” the Spaniard said.

“They will play at home. They know we are in good shape, so we will not be having the surprise factor like Arrows had.

“I understand we need to be very sharp in defence and in the attack. If we are not able to perform at a high level, it will be tough to get three points,” Alejandro said.

Still smarting from their shock defeat to Arrows, Churchill Brothers now face another stiff task against an unbeaten East Bengal. Placed fourth in the table, Churchill Brothers faced their first defeat of the tournament owing to a major defensive lapse.

They will, however, look to bounce back in what would also be their first match of the New Year.

“We showed a poor image of our team in our last game. We can do much better. We must do better as a team,” said Bernardo Tavares, head coach of Churchill Brothers.

“We gave too much space to them (Arrows) to play and they got the confidence and believed they can draw because we could not score the extra goal to kill the game.”

Tavares asked his team to quickly get over the loss and ensure there is no let-up in intensity in the coming matches. “We had got 19 shots on target against seven by our opponents, who scored twice because of two mistakes from us.

“If we want to win games and get three points, we cannot sit back and rather must try to score quickly,” he said. “I want to forget the last game as an accident and we can’t let this happen again in the future.”

Speaking about East Bengal, Tavares added: “I have already analysed their four games. Their Spanish players are good and so are the other players. So we need to see them as a strong unit.

“If we want to have a good game against them, we cannot make the same mistakes that we made in the last game because East Bengal are a better team. We must be sharper with as well as without the ball.”