I-League Media Team

MUMBAI: Mumbai FC will host Kingfisher East Bengal on Wednesday evening in their Hero I-League encounter, knowing that three points are crucial for them in their bid to avoid relegation. Mumbai, who have 18 points from as many matches, are involved in an intense relegation battle along with the three Goan clubs – Dempo, Salgaocar and Sporting Clube de Goa – who are all on 17 points.

The Khalid Jamil-coached team will take a giant step towards safety if they manage a positive result against the Kolkata giants but going by Mumbai’s recent form, it will be a humongous task for them. Mumbai have played out uninspiring draws in their last five games and have struggled to create goal-scoring opportunities. They’ve appeared to be out of ideas and often jaded, with a sturdy defence coming to their rescue on several occasions.
 

However, against a strong East Bengal side that has some prolific attacking players, Jamil knows his defenders will have their task cutout. Chika Wali and Justin Stephen have looked solid at the back with Rahul Bheke also coming up with strong performances along with Ashutosh Mehta. But against the quality of Ranti Martins, who is the highest goal-scorer this season, and Dudu Omagbemi they face a tough challenge.

Between them, Martins and Dudu have scored 22 out of the 26 goals East Bengal have scored this season. They have been well-supported by a strong midfield, which includes the likes of Cavin Lobo, Joaquim Abranches, Lalrindika Ralte, Mehtab Hossain and Leo Bertos, among others. Their Dutch manager Eelco Schattorie is spoilt for choices to pick players in his first XI but with them falling out of contention for the title, East Bengal are only left to play for better position on the table.

Hossain and Robert Lalthlamuana are out injured for East Bengal whereas Mumbai are sweating on midfielder Taisuke Matsugae’s fitness. Jamil said he will take a call on the Japanese’s availability on the match day. He also stressed that they need to score more than one goal to beat East Bengal. “There is a lot of pressure on us because of the five draws we have had. We have to concentrate. We can’t score only one goal. We have to score at least two. East Bengal have really good forwards, so we need to be at our best,” Jamil said.

Schattorie, meanwhile, saw the performance of his two strikers as a positive. “My players haven’t been able to play 90 minutes with the same intensity. There have been a lot of muscle injuries, so it has impacted out consistency. Our strikers Ranti and Dudu have managed to click and they have been scoring a lot of goals. So that’s a positive,” Schattorie said.

Kick-off: 20-05-2015@ 7 PM
 

Hashtag: #MUMvKEB