Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], February 17 : Mohun Bagan Super Giant (MBSG), buoyed by the unbeaten streak of FC Goa, is gearing up to host a similarly confident NorthEast United FC (NEUFC) at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata to kick off the Saturday double header of the Indian Super League (ISL) 2023-24.
The Mariners must be understandably buoyant after managing to put brakes over a seemingly unstoppable FC Goa unit, that too in Fatorda.
Dimitrios Petratos rose to the occasion to deliver a decisive blow that will have ripple effects at the top of the table, and Antonio Lopez Habas must be looking to continue that impressive run when they welcome the Highlanders on Saturday.
On the other hand, NEUFC beat MBSG rivals East Bengal FC in a thrilling 3-2 encounter in Guwahati last Saturday. Powered by the incoming of striker Tomi Juric, their attack donned a sudden lethal look that took the Red & Gold Brigade aback immediately.
Interestingly, both sides head into this contest on the back of momentum and form favouring them. The Mariners had made light work of NEUFC when they last met in the ISL in December, but one must surely expect a more gripping and competitive contest this time around, given the context and circumstances.
Slowly but steadily, Habas and his plans are taking shape in the MBSG unit. With their win against FC Goa, they have now kept clean sheets in consecutive matches for the first time in this ISL season. Despite three losses and two draws, along with the departure of Juan Ferrando as the head coach, the team has accumulated 26 points in the first 13 games of this ISL season - which is their highest tally at this stage of any campaign of the competition so far. Moreover, the eight victories they have garnered thus far is their most wins after the aforementioned number of matches as well, suggesting that things might not be as troublesome as it appeared to be at one point of the season for MBSG.
The duo of Juric and Nestor Albiach joined hands to unlock a neatly organised East Bengal FC defence in the last game and they will step into this match with similar objectives. Impressively, NEUFC boast of a laudable goal-scoring record against MBSG already, having found the back of the at least once in each of their previous eight fixtures.
"We have the same squad as the last match. The objective is that we want to get three points. It depends on the opposition as well but our approach is to be positive," Mohun Bagan Super Giant head coach Antonio Lopez Habas said in the pre-match press conference as quoted by ISL.
"My strategy is to make sure we do the best that we can. As I said, we are playing against a dinosaur! We need to be smart in our game and try to do the best we can," NEUFC head coach Juan Pedro Benali mentioned ahead of the game.
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