After a nail biting victory against North East, Mohun Bagan will face another tough away challenge in Bengaluru. Sree Kanteerava used to be a happy hunting ground for the Mariners. Time and again when we required a positive result the atmosphere of Sree Kanteerava help us to achieve that. Last time we smashed past 4 goals against Bengaluru when we desperately needed 3 points to lift the League title but this season we are going to face a different blues altogether.
Mohun Bagan was drowned against North East in the first half but the way they fought back and sailing their way to victory, it was incredible. After so many draws under Jose Molina that victory will definitely boost some solid confidence into the team. They have conceded 2 goals against North East and the way they crumbled under counter attacks, it is a definite worrying sign for Jose Molina. Last season Habas opted for a different approach in Away games and surprisingly they hadn’t conceded a single goal in any of the away games they played under Habas. Well, they did concede against East Bengal but that wasn’t technically a away game for us. This will surely going to be a tough test for Jose Molina as he’ll face the home atmosphere of the opponent team for the first time in this season.
On the other hands, under Gerard Zaragoza, Bengaluru are playing very compact football this season. They have conceded only 4 goals in 7 competitive matches and out of those 4 goals one from Penalty and 2 from outside the box. Even Gerard had the confidence to field all Indian back line in the second half against East Bengal and from beginning against Hyderabad FC. Their Talisman Sunil Chhetri also in good touch as he already scored 2 goals in this year ISL. But, all eyes will be on Vinith Venkatesh. The 19 year old sensation already made a mark in Indian Football and within a span of month he scored against Mohun Bagan in Durand Cup Semi Final and against East Bengal in their opening game of this year ISL. Not many player achieved that feet in his debut season.
Mohun Bagan needs to add some solidity in their midfield. Apuia is good in interception but sometime you need some tough tacklers around the defensive midfield position. Playing with Thapa and Apuia will sometime reduce that toughness to rattle the opponent game play on the middle of the pitch. Mohun Bagan will travel to Iran also in couple of days time to play against Tractor FC in AFC Champions League Two encounter and lot of changes to be expected against the old rivals. In their, last match Mohun Bagan opted to play in 4-4-2 formation with Dimi and Greg upfront but the problem with that approach is none of them are actually attacked the box regularly so it was quite visible that North East defenders are easily dealt with all the diagonal threat quite easily. In the second half when Jason Cummings was introduced alongwith Jamie Maclaren the pressure was mounted. One positive thing this season is they are scoring quite a few goals from the set pieces and with Bengaluru traditionally vulnerable in set piece we can expect Mohun Bagan could capitalize the opportunity against them.
Both the teams yet to taste the defeat in ISL but Bengaluru are currently 2 point ahead as they win both of their matches. The match will start from 7:30 PM on a Saturday evening at Bengaluru and you expect a large number of crowd. Last time we have seen so much away support for Mohun Bagan and with travelling fans and the fans based in Bengaluru, we can expect much more turnout than the last occasion. Let’s see whether Mohun Bagan maintain their good record in Sree Kanteerava and move ahead of Bengaluru to be in the 2nd position of the table.
Predicted XI:
Kick off Time: 7:30PM(IST)
Live telecast/streaming: JioCinema, Sports18 3, DD Bangla, OneFootball(International)
Venue: Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru.
