ISL 2019-20: 5 Fixtures that could define the top four race 

#1 Mumbai City FC vs Chennaiyin FC (21st February 2020)

Can Mumbai City FC make the playoffs for the second consecutive season?

Back in October 2019, the pair indulged in a dour 0-0 draw, wherein both sides failed to lay down the gauntlet considerably. The Islanders continued floundering for the proceeding weeks while Chennaiyin found themselves in the lower trenches.

However, a couple of months later, the teams represent two top-four contenders and a duo that seems hell-bent on nudging ahead at the expense of the other.

Thus, a titanic six-point shootout between Mumbai City FC and the Marina Machans at Mumbai seems fitting, especially considering it would be the former’s final fixture and the latter’s penultimate encounter.

Moreover, if both teams were to have their way, they would enter the game with just a couple of points separating them, meaning that a home victory would firmly close the door on the visitors’ qualification ambitions. On the other hand, a win for Chennaiyin would propel them above the Islanders and ensure them a spot in the top four.

Thus, on sheer weightage, the match at the Mumbai Football Arena is perhaps the most defining fixture that remains in the ISL. To add to that, there’s also the intriguing narrative of Costa wanting to prove that last season’s semi-final appearance wasn’t a fluke and Coyle hoping to restore the two-time champions among the higher echelons of the league, a place the club, in the Irishman’s words, ‘need to be’.

And, though plenty of games boast the ability to throw a spanner in the works of either team, even before they grapple each other on the 21st, one reckons that the contest at the Mumbai Football Arena could help resolve the ambiguity around the fourth spot, once and for all.