ISL 3 Semifinals Leg 1: ATK look to topple Mumbai at home

by Chittu Shetty December 10, 2016

The first leg of third edition of ISL Semifinals between Mumbai City FC and Atletico de Kolkata is set to enthrall the fans at the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium in Kolkata on Saturday.

While it would be the first time for Mumbai City FC to step into the knockout stages, Atletico de Kolkata will be playing its third knockout stages as they are the only side in the ISL to have qualified for all the semi-finals in the history of the competition.

The hosts come into game on the back of just one win over their last seven games, although Molina’s side lost only one game during the same period, it would be a worrying factor for the coach if the team is unable to finish off the game like in the league where ATK ended with 8 draws off the 14 games.

ATK will look towards fans support to turn their homes woes around at least in the semifinal with just one win in seven league games which almost cost them the play-off spot. On the team level, there is some good news for them players like Sameehg Doutie returning to match fitness, although Arnab Mondal is still a question mark, with his participation to be called after a late fitness test on the match-day.

Debjit Majumder would be most likely to man the post with Henrique Sereno and if fit Arnab, along with Prabir Das and Pritam Kotal in flanks. Borja Fernandez and Stephen Pearson would hold the fort in midfield, with Abinash Ruidas and Doutie or Javi Lara down in the wings. Helder Postiga and Iain Hume will be commanding the attack.

Also Read: ISL 3: Mumbai finish on top after draw against Delhi

For the visitors, there are not much injury worries with only Aiborlang Khongjee missing the first leg. Alexandre Guimaraes has a luxury of picking from the plenty of good players to select out of.

Mumbai’s road to semifinal has shown how ruthless and clinical their performance could turn out to be as shown in the game against Kerala blasters and Chennaiyin, mauling the former 5-0 in one game.

Amrinder Singh would be most likely to continue guarding the post after coming up with four clean sheets in as many games since coming from his AFC cup run. Mumbai are most likely to have a similar backline of ever reliable Lucian Goian, Sehnaj Singh, Anwar Ali and L Ralte.

Gerson Vieira and Kristian Vadocz will form the base of midfield providing the necessary backing to their attacking forwards. Mumbai has shown their varieties in attack with number of option for coach Guimaraes. Matias Defederico, Sony Norde, Cafu, Sunil Chhetri and Forlan form a strike-force can run into any defence.

Even the bench strength has good strong players to make their point with the likes of Leo Costa and Thiago Cunha while the likes of young Udanta Singh with his pace coming from bench cannot be ruled out either.

In the last three games between the two sides Mumbai come up triumphs in two the games while one was a draw. Earlier in the season Mumbai came up with a narrow 1-0 win thanks to their Marquee player Dago Forlan’s late strike with Kolkata wasting number of chances through the game in front of their own crowd.

With finals at stake, Molina would want to make sure his sides come with better performances for their fans

Kick-off: 10^th December, 7PM IST