Preview: Bengaluru FC face uphill task against Mumbai City

The Islanders will be aiming their Durand Cup final revenge over the Blues in this match.

Mumbai City will face Bengaluru FC at the Mumbai Football Arena (MFA) on Thursday for their seventh game of the ongoing season of the Indian Super League (ISL). The Islanders come into this game after thrashing Chennaiyin FC 6-2 away from home last weekend. On the other hand, Bengaluru are simply struggling to get going and were outclassed 1-0 by East Bengal in their previous encounter. The two sides had last faced in the finals of the Durand Cup two months ago and BFC had emerged victorious by 2-1 in that match.

But a lot seems to have changed since then, with the fortunes of the two clubs heading in opposite directions altogether. Without further ado, let us take a look at a detailed preview of this forthcoming encounter.

The Stakes

Mumbai City

The Islanders certainly secured a statement victory against Chennaiyin and will hope to build on that in their coming matches. They are four points behind the table-toppers Hyderabad FC and will be edging to bridge that gap by not dropping anymore points, especially at home.

They have the chance to inflict further misery on an already struggling Bengaluru line-up and they will back themselves to come out triumphant, especially considering the form that the side is riding high on currently.

Bengaluru FC

Bengaluru FC need to break out of their shell somehow and what better opportunity to do that against an in-form Mumbai City? They haven’t won a game in over five weeks and failed to score a goal in their last three matches.

The attacking unit doesn’t seem to be gathering momentum and they are quickly running out of time to get the playing XI ticking together. At stake for them are points that they can ill-afford to lose; against an opposition that is in a relentless pursuit to roll over all their opponents this year. Regardless of the result, a cracker of a contest awaits the audience.

Team News

Barring Amey Ranawade, who has been ruled out of the season, Mumbai have a fully fit squad at their disposal. For Bengaluru FC, Prince Ibara is still out of action.

Head-to-Head

The two sides have faced each other 10 times in the league so far. Mumbai City have emerged victorious five times whereas Bengaluru FC have won four of these games. A solitary encounter resulted in a draw.

The team from down south thrashed the Islanders 3-0 in their last faceoff in the league in February 2022.

Probable Line-ups

Mumbai City: Phurba Lachenpa (GK); Rahul Bheke, Rostyn Griffiths, Mehtab Singh, Mandar Rao Dessai; Lalengmawia Ralte, Ahmed Jahouh; Lallianzuala Chhangte, Greg Stewart, Bipin Singh; Jorge Pereyra Diaz.

Bengaluru FC: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (GK); Namgyal Bhutia, Sandesh Jhingan, Aleksandar Jovanovic, Naorem Roshan Singh; Bruno Ramires, Jayesh Rane; Leon Augustine, Sunil Chhetri, Sivasakthi Narayanan; Roy Krishna.

Man to Watch

Jorge Pereyra Diaz (Mumbai City)

Jorge Pereyra Diaz has shown glimpses of his caliber in the last few games. He has gradually recovered from the injury setback that he suffered towards the end of the Durand Cup.

Head coach Des Buckingham has admitted that Mumbai are able to play differently with the Argentine upfront and Diaz has been making a strong case to be included in the starting XI recently. He has netted against the likes of Kerala Blasters and Chennaiyin FC away from home and will be edging to get his first goal in front of his home crowd when Bengaluru come visiting the city on Thursday.   

Sunil Chhetri (Bengaluru FC)

Bengaluru is desperately looking for some inspiration upfront and who better than Sunil Chhetri to deliver it when the team needs him the most?

The Indian skipper has arguably looked off-colour so far this season. He hasn’t notched a single goal in five matches so far. But a probable moment of magic from him can turn the team’s momentum around altogether.

 The side needs their talisman to click now more than ever and Chhetri will be pushing himself to get back in the groove as soon as possible. The 38-year-old has an impressive record against the Islanders. He has scored seven goals in 10 ISL matches against them and will be aiming to open his tally for this year against his former club.

Did You Know?

• Mumbai City lead the goal-scoring charts for the season with 16 goals from their six matches until now.

• Greg Stewart has four assists to his name from six appearances so far this year. The forward has also scored two goals in addition to this.

• Bengaluru FC have registered the least number of shots at goal (46) amongst all the 11 clubs in ISL 2022-23.

Telecast

The kick-off time for the Mumbai City vs Bengaluru FC game is at 7:30 pm IST on 17th November (Thursday). The match will be played at the Mumbai Football Arena. The game will be telecasted live on the Star Sports Network. Disney+HotStar and JioTV will also stream the match.