Not prepared to be distracted by the result of the previous round, Mumbai FC seem determined to bounce back by playing good positive football and to try and get a favourable result when they take on a buoyant East Bengal in an 15th round I-League match, to be played at the Barasat District Sports Stadium, Kolkata on Tuesday evening.
The Mumbai club was a bit unlucky to concede a late goal and went down narrowly 0-1 to Bengaluru FC in the last game last Saturday night, but coach Khalid Jamil is keen to try and hope for a turnaround. “Even though we are placed at the bottom, I have told the boys not to think too much about it. Instead, I have reminded them of the home match against East Bengal in January, which finished goalless. If we can raise our game and produce a similar performance, it would give us the impetus to at least come out with a point,” said Jamil confidently.
In contrast, East Bengal will be all charged up after defeating arch-rivals Mohun Bagan 2-1 in the Kolkata Derby also last Saturday.
Jamil will depend on skipper Taisuke Matsugae along with Izumi Arata to play key roles in the midfield. They will have to initiate moves and create openings for the forwards Sushil Kumar Singh and Ryuki Kozawa and at the same time lend stability at the back. The defenders Min-Chol Son along with either Pratik Chowdhary and Anwar Ali in the centre and wing back Clyde Fernandes and Ashutosh Mehta will have to be on full alert because they are certain to face a stern test from East Bengal’s twin strike force of Ranti Martins and Do Dong-Hyun.
Khalid also admitted that the East Bengal strikers are dangerous and would pose some serious threats to their citadel. “All of them are very good players and we have to defend resolutely as a unit. I don’t have any special marking plans for any individual, but we would give it our best shot,” said Jamil.
Mumbai FC is currently in the last position of the 9-team standings with 12 points from 13games while East Bengal with 23 points from 12 matches are placed in third place.
The match will kick off at 7.05 pm and will be telecast live on Ten 2.