Mumbai: Fighting for the top spot, Mumbai City FC will welcome NorthEast United FC at the Mumbai Football Arena for their Indian Super League (ISL) 2023-24 clash on Tuesday, hoping to maintain their chances. The Islanders have a task in their hand now, concerning defending their League Winners Shield title.
Mumbai City FC have been replaced by the Mohun Bagan Super Giant at the top of the standings, with both teams accumulating 36 points each, albeit the Mariners doing so in a game fewer (17) than the Islanders (18). With Odisha FC (35 points from 18 games) and FC Goa (32 points from 17 matches), breathing down their neck, Mumbai City FC has no scope of committing any error anymore. They have been in good form lately, accumulating 11 points out of a possible 15 from their previous five matches.
Against them is a NorthEast United FC unit that has dropped eight points out of a possible 12 in their previous four encounters. They were handed a 1-0 loss by Punjab FC in the last game, but the team is still just a point behind (20) the sixth-placed Jamshedpur FC (21), and has a game in hand (18), as compared to the Red Miners (19). The team has shown that it can pack a punch and has a frontline that punishes the opposition for any defensive mistakes. Hence, the Islanders cannot afford to take the Highlanders lightly by any stretch of the imagination.
Mumbai City FC is unbeaten in its last five face-offs against NorthEast United FC in the ISL. The Islanders have won thrice consecutively against the Highlanders now. They have never gone longer without a loss to NorthEast United FC in the competition. The team has defeated the Highlanders twice consecutively at home now. A victory here will equal their longest such stretch against the opposition, after a run of three wins from October 2015-February 2018.
The team has averaged two strikes per match in their last five games in the competition, which is a significant markup of the one goal per game they averaged in the five prior such encounters. The philosophy that they adopted since 2020 has stayed on across the years and under different head coaches. For example, they have recorded 155 open-play sequences of 10+ passes in the ongoing season, the second highest by any side this term behind Odisha FC (195). Contrastingly, NorthEast United FC have recorded the fewest such sequences this season (38), which suggests that this is going to be a clash of two absolutely opposite playing philosophies.
NorthEast United FC have not faced defeat in their previous two away games. The last time they went on a longer stretch was of four matches from October to December 2019. Quite different from the approach of the Islanders, NorthEast United FC is averaging 72.3 long passes per game in the current ISL campaign, which is the highest amongst all teams in the competition.
However, the Highlanders have the lowest pass completion rate on such passes in the competition this term (40.9%), reflecting that the Islanders have work to do to improve their adopted approach. The last fixture between the two teams resulted in a 2-1 win for Mumbai City FC and be rest assured that NorthEast United FC will give them a run for their money in this match.
(IANS)
