Unbeaten ATK to take on injury-hit Mumbai City

Atletico de Kolkata will be hoping to maintain their unbeaten record in the Hero Indian Super League as they face Mumbai City FC at Rabindra Sarobar Stadium in Kolkata, on Tuesday.

Atletico de Kolkata are the only unbeaten team in the league at the moment and have scored in all their matches so far. The former champions have scored five goals in the second half, the most by any team, and should be fancying their chances against Mumbai City FC, who have conceded five of their six goals in the second half.

Coach Jose Molina will know the importance of securing full points from this home fixture as he takes his team away for three consecutive matches against NorthEast United FC, FC Pune City and Delhi Dynamos.

“I hope that when we play against Mumbai City FC at home all the players will be ready. I hope they will give their best, try to win and take all the three points. If we go top of the table that is good but that is not the most important thing now. We want to win the three points,” said Molina, whose side managed a 1-0 victory against Delhi Dynamos, their first at home, in the previous clash.

Atletico de Kolkata are second on the table with nine points from five matches and a win should be enough for them to overtake NorthEast United at the top of the table.

“Getting the three points matters most because that takes us closer to our goal, the semis. It doesn’t matter if we are on top of the table then,” said the Spanish coach.

Mumbai City FC set the pace at the start of the league with two consecutive victories but haven’t tasted a win in the last four matches. Since those two wins at the start against FC Pune City and NorthEast United FC, Mumbai have only managed two points from four matches, including a solitary goal loss in the last game against FC Goa.

“We go to play against Atletico de Kolkata to get the points that we didn’t get against FC Goa,” said Mumbai City coach Alexandre Guimaraes.

The Costa Rican coach will have to juggle with his squad after several of his players picked up injuries. Leo Costa and Anwar Ali could only make it to the bench in the previous match because of injuries, while Pronay Halder and Defederico had to be substituted.  

Boithang Haokip is still recovering from the knock against Kerala Blasters, leaving Guimaraes very little to pick from, since four of his players are still on duty with Bengaluru FC in the AFC Cup.