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Mumbai, 27 October 2014: Mumbai City FC will look to return to the winning ways after an unexpected reversal when they take on Chennaiyin FC in their fourth league encounter of the Hero Indian Super League at the Nehru stadium in Chennai on Tuesday.Both teams suffered reversals in their last encounters with Mumbai City FC going down 0-2 against Northeast United FC at home while Chennaiyin FC suffered a 4-1 loss against Delhi Dynamos in the national capital.
While both teams would be smarting from the defeats and would be looking to get their campaign back on track, the visitors would be more than keen to prove that the loss was just an aberration having dominated play for major period against the visitors.
"I think we did okay in the first half, but in the second half, we let ourselves down a bit. Having said that, you got to give credit to NorthEast United for the way they played,” Mumbai City FC coach Peter Reid said.
In fact, Mumbai City FC has had more possession and attempts on goal than their opponents in their previous three games and coach Peter Reid and the team are extremely unhappy that they have just three points to show for their efforts so far.
Injuries to skipper Syed Rahim Nabi and marquee player Freddie Ljungberg of Sweden haven’t helped the team’s cause, but Nabi could feature in the game on Tuesday. Also the football lovers would get a chance to see French striker Nicolas Anelka in action as the former Chelsea and Real Madrid star has completed his three-match suspension and would be available for selection.
Anelka’s presence should add the much needed bite to the Mumbai City FC strike force which failed to convert the good work of their midfield into goals in the opener against Atletico de Kolkata and their last game against Northeast United.
“We know it’s a difficult game, there are some quality players playing against us. But we got some good attacking players too. So, we are looking forward to it and hopefully it will be a good entertaining football match,” Reid added.
The availability of Anelka could also mean a selection headache for Reid as he has to maintain the quota for five Indians in the starting line-up.
The job of building play from the midfield will once again fall on the shoulders of Brazilian born Andre Moritz and it will be interesting to see who will replace centre-back Pavel Cmovs, who was given the marching orders after being booked twice in the last game.
“I am stating the obvious, but we need to tighten at the back. We have conceded some very easy, stupid free kicks in the first three games. Hopefully, we will be able to cut down on that,” Reid said, a view that was also shared by goalkeeper Subrata Pal.
