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A mouth-watering clash awaits in Mumbai Football Arena where the Maharashtrian giants, Mumbai City FC and FC Pune City will meet in match number 70 of the Hero ISL. FC Pune City is in the second place of the table with 25 points and looking to extend their lead to catch league leaders Bengaluru FC, who qualified for the semi-final round. Mumbai City FC lost against FC Pune City, 2-1 in their last meeting at Pune; Balwant Singh gave the lead for the away side in the first half, but FC Pune City snatched three points when Emiliano Alfaro scored a brace at the end of the game. Now both the teams are aware of each other’s' strength and weaknesses. Let us look at some possible highlights before the Kick-off.
MUMBAI CITY FC
Mumbai City is in the seventh place of the table with 17 points from 13 games. After a win against FC Goa in a nail-biting match, Mumbai City FC lost to Jamshedpur FC at Mumbai Football Arena. They may be looking for a bounce back against FC Pune City and eyeing for semi-final spot from their next few matches. They drew one, lost three and won one in their last five games so their next and last five games are crucial to go forward on the points table. Mumbai City FC scored 19 goals and won 5 in 13 matches.
Indian forward Balwant Singh has 6 goals out of 12 games besides his name, however, Amrinder Singh made 44 saves till now in the competition. The 35-year-old Romanian defender, Lucian Goian scored 1 goal and made 22 interceptions from 11 games; Brazilian midfielder, Everton Santos has 4 goals as well as 4 assists in 13 matches and made an impressive performance in the midfield till now.
FC PUNE CITY
FC Pune City is in the second place of the table with 25 points from 14 games and they must be looking to keep their place to qualify for the semi-finals. They lost two and won three of their last five games, and their last win was against NorthEast United FC with a solitary goal scored by Marcelo Pereira at the dying moments in the second half. They are the third highest goal scoring team with 25 goals and won 8 in 14 matches. They kept 5 clean sheets till now in the competition.
The 30-year-old Brazilian Forward Marcelo Pereira scored 7 goals and made 7 assists till now in the competition; goalkeeper Vishal Kaith kept 5 clean sheets out of 11, and Spanish midfielder Marcos Tebar made 20 interceptions from 11 games for FC Pune city. Emiliano Alfaro has 7 goals besides his name.
WHAT NEXT?
Mumbai City FC will face ATK in Kolkata on 18 February, on the other hand, FC Pune City will meet league leaders Bengaluru FC in Bengaluru on 16 February.
