Chennai, Feb 23:
Mumbai City FC will travel to take FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in the Indian Super League (ISL) match on Friday.
Placed third inthe standings, a win with a goal difference of three or more here couldtake the Islanders (28) to the top of the table, displacing Odisha FC(31) – a team that has played 15 games so far.
The Islanders bounced from their 3-2 shock loss to Jamshedpur FC to winagainst East Bengal FC and Bengaluru FC in the last two games. Inaddition to the three points, it is their consecutive clean sheets thatmust have come as a sigh of relief, especially due to the departure ofdefensive mainstay Rostyn Griffiths.
Contrastingly,Chennaiyin FC has played twice since the league resumed late last month. A 0-1 loss to Bengaluru FC was followed with a victory by a similar margin against Kerala Blasters FC.
Hosting Mumbai City FC gives the Marina Machans a chance to get a second straight home winunder their belt, also helping them (15) edge past the seventh-placedJamshedpur FC (17) and get closer to NorthEast United FC (18), who havebroken into the playoffs spots with their 2-0 victory against FC Goa atFatorda on Wednesday.
Interestingly, Chennaiyin FC does not boast of the best of records against Mumbai City FC lately. They have lost all of their last five matches against theIslanders in the ISL. The Marina Machans have failed to find the back ofthe net eight times in the ISL against Mumbai City FC, which is themost number of times that they have gone scoreless against anyopposition.
However, the team has been coming on its own both at the back as well as at the front in the previous few games.
Theyhave not conceded a goal in their previous two matches at home, andtheir fleet footed forwards have come to the rescue many a time ?helping them earn spot-kicks often. Chennaiyin FC has scored 25% oftheir total goals (4 out of 16) from penalties in ISL 2023-24, which isthe highest share amongst all teams.
The prospects ofthis clash could be decided in the first 15 minutes itself, given thetrack record of both teams. The Marina Machans are strong starters,having netted five times in that phase this season.
However,Mumbai City FC begins matches neatly, having given away only one goalin the opening 15 minutes, which is the lowest amongst all sides in thecompetition. Will Rafael Crivellaro & Co. be able to catch theIslanders off guard at the start of the game tomorrow? The Mumbai City FC have gotten the better of their coming opponents consistentlyfor a reasonable period now. They have rediscovered their scoringtouch, having netted 23 goals in 14 matches this season.
For instance, they have found the back of the net at least once in each oftheir last four games. This comes after them failing to score in threeof the four encounters prior to that.
