The penultimate clash of Indian Super League will scheduled to took place in Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata between Mohun Bagan and Mumbai City FC. Mohun Bagan currently in 2nd position with 45 points from 21 matches and behind Mumbai who currently sitting top of the table with 47 points from as many matches. Mohun Bagan has no other option except winning the match to claim their maiden League Shield title.
The Mohun Bagan players are looking confident after they were thrashing Bengaluru in their own ground. It will be extremely difficult for Mumbai to cope with the electrifying atmosphere at Salt Lake as they were not used to play under such condition on regular basis. The match going to be a nail biting encounter as both teams playing clinical football to be at their respective position. Good news for Mohun Bagan is that their charismatic coach Antonio Lopez Habas was back in his team’s practice after recovering from his chest infection.
The midfield maestro Sahal also look fit and already started practice with the main squad. Mumbai will miss the service of Vikram Pratap Singh who has scored 7 goals and provided 3 assists in this season’s ISL. But his replacement Bipin will surely be a good choice and he already scored a goal against Mohun Bagan in the first leg at Mumbai. Both the teams having terrific attacking line up and depending heavily on their wing play. The battle between Liston and Chhangte on the left flank alongwith Manvir and Bipin on right wing will surely be the highlight of this game.
The one who ultimately win the battle in the wings will eventually be the winner.Mohun Bagan probably alter their formation to 3-5-2 and play Liston Colaco in place of Ashish Rai and Jason Cummings could replace Armando Sadiku in the upfront. Although, Sahal is fit but team will not take risk to play him from the very beginning so it is very likely Anirudh Thapa will start the match after his wonderful performance against Bengaluru. Manvir and Liston will be playing in the Right and Left wing and there role will be not just to penetrate the opponent defense but to support their own defense to cater the threat of Mumbai players. The young sensation of Mohun Bagan Abhishek will face his biggest challenge as Mumbai used to cut back from wings and Defensive midfielders will face the uphill tasks of track back and cater those threat.
Mumbai on the other hand will play their usual 4-2-3-1 with Perera Diaz on the upfront and most likely Tiri at the defense. There will be one more thing to look out for that whether they opted to play Rahul Bheke as a Center back and Mehtab Singh as right full back because both of them were not very confident playing out of their comfort zone. Mumbai did a remarkable job to be at the top position after so many changes in their squad throughout the season. On the other hand Mohun Bagan was also struggled because of injuries to so many of their star players. But eventually they both recovered from those situation showing tremendous composure and determination. The match will start from 7:30 PM in a busy Monday evening. The demand for the tickets of the match is sky high and the mariners will not going to spare any empty sit at Salt Lake. The news which we heard that the authority already released 60000 tickets for the match. The way it was hyped, it will surely be one of the highest attended matches of ISL.
Line-up Prediction:
Kick off Time: 7:30PM(IST)
Live telecast/streaming: JioCinema, Sports18 3, DD Bangla, OneFootball(International)
Venue: Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata.
