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After a two-game road trip in which they failed to concede a single goal, Mumbai City FC are back home for Match 34 of the Hero Indian Super League as they take on FC Goa Monday evening. It’s a match that has a lot riding on it as a win could take Mumbai into the lead at the top of the table while a win for the visitors will bring them into the top four.
Venue & Kick-Off
Mumbai return to their fortress, the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, where they have only lost one game so far (against NorthEast United). Feeding on home support, Mumbai will look to get back to winning ways once again.
Kick-Off: November 17 – 7:00 PM (IST)
Form
(Most recent on the right)
Mumbai: L-W-L-L-W-W-D-D
Kerala: L-D-L-L-W-L-D-W
Mumbai are coming off back-to-back goalless draws against Goa and Kerala Blasters. While the clean sheets on the road will be a source of much delight for the players and coach Peter Reid, they will want to get back to scoring goals again and will look to get going on home turf.
Goa had a fantastic result in their last game where they triumphed 4-1 away at Delhi Dynamos which made it one win, one draw and one loss in their last three games. Goa will be looking to shake off that inconsistency and register two wins on the trot for the first time.
Possible Line-Ups
Mumbai City FC (4-2-3-1): Paul; Costa, Friedrich, Cmovs, Mondal; Letzelter, Stohanzl; Didika, Ribeiro, Anelka; Subhash
The Mumbai team has a settled look about it now after the state of flux that we witnessed in the tournament’s early days. The central defensive partnership of Manuel Friedrich and Pavel Cmovs has begun to lend the team that stability at the back. Nicolas Anelka has been a mainstay as the leader in attack ever since his return from suspension and will likely once again have Subhash Singh as a willing ally.
The other wide position has been fought over by Lalrindika Ralte and Nadong Bhutia with Bhutia starting last time around against Kerala. Generally, the guy starting has failed to impress and been replaced by the other through the game, Reid will be hoping that trend doesn’t continue for long.
Andre Moritz and Syed Rahim Nabi are missing through injury while marquee player Freddie Ljungberg is also a long-term absentee with a hamstring strain.
FC Goa (4-1-4-1): Seda; Narayan Das, Bengelloun, Gregory, Debabrata Roy; Carvalho, Mandar Rao, Santos, Pires, Bikramjit; Özbey
Things worked out extremely well for Zico and his Goa side in their last match as they registered a massive 4-1 win, that too away, against the Delhi side. It was a breakout game for them as they had previously sputtered through their first seven games.
“They can be sure that we are playing to win, and we will attack”, said the Brazilian legend at the pre-match press conference before adding, “We are looking forward to neutralising the best players of the Mumbai team. I think it is an equal game.”
Goa had been playing good football all along and with the finishing greatly improving they will be looking to upset the Mumbai apple cart too. Their Australian forward Tolgay Özbey also had an outstanding game against Delhi.
Central defenders Youness Bengelloun and Gregory Arnolin will have a key role to play for Goa as they did an excellent job on Anelka and the other Mumbai forwards when the two sides met in Fatorda about a week back; they will look to do a similar shut out job once again on Monday.
Bengelloun, in fact, had two goals as well to his credit in the game against Delhi and will be up for the challenge as he expressed the same positive vibes that his coach did saying, “Everybody knows that we always played well. For the last game, we were very efficient and that is why we scored four goals,”
Key Facts & Stats
- Mumbai City FC have kept four successive clean sheets since their 1-4 loss away to Chennaiyin FC.
- FC Goa have the highest number of shots on goal (114) and shots on target (65) in the ISL.
- Both Mumbai and Goa have conceded 10 goals each so far in the tournament, the second highest after Chennai (11).
- Mumbai, along with FC Pune City and Kerala Blasters, are the only three teams yet to score from the penalty spot.
- Goa’s Robert Pires is the fourth-most fouled player in the league having been felled 16 times.
Players to Watch
Tiago Ribeiro: The Swiss man has been asked to fill in in midfield since Moritz’s injury for Mumbai. Moritz was very influential in getting Mumbai’s attacks going and it’s no surprise that they struggled to score without him in the last two games. Ribeiro will have to make sure that he does his best to make up for Moritz’s absence.
Subhash Singh: The Manipuri forward does a lot of good things for Mumbai down the right flank, but an area that he needs to improve on is his decision making in the final third. He has not made full use of good openings in previous matches and will have to come good.
Gregory Arnolin and Youness Bengelloun: Goa’s French central defensive pairing did well to contain the Mumbai threat when the teams last met. Not only that, both of them offer a solid goal threat from set pieces and in attack as well. They could provide a decisive edge to Goa at both ends of the pitch.
Prediction
Mumbai have had two consecutive 1-0 wins here at home, netting a goal with Anelka’s help and shutting out the opposition. If that trend continues, they will be more than happy and on current form, Mumbai are struggling to score goals, so unless Goa offer a lot of help, goals will probably be at a premium in this contest too.
Goa are coming off a hugely inspiring away win and will want more of the same as they take to the field tonight. Mumbai could not get the better of them in the last contest and Zico and co. will be looking to reinforce the positives from that game to get a result here.
I see both teams scoring and it could be honours even at the end of the game.
Mumbai City FC 1-1 FC Goa
