Preview: Mumbai City look to end winless run against revenge-seeking ATK Mohun Bagan

A win for either team will elevate them to the top-four.

All the talk will be around Kiyan Nassiri when ATK Mohun Bagan take on Mumbai City FC, hoping to break into the top-four again in the Indian Super League at the PJN Stadium on Thursday.

Kiyan Nassiri became the youngest ever hat-trick scorer in the Indian Super League after his second-half treble against SC East Bengal hurtled him into the limelight in the Kolkata Derby.

The youngster broke a couple of records more on the way to his treble. He became the first player in ISL to score a hattrick after coming on as a substitute. Nassiri became the youngest ever goal-scorer for the Mariners in the ISL.

The Stakes

ATK Mohun Bagan

ATKMB are placed fifth in the points table and a win against Mumbai would take them into the top-four and help them close the gap on league leaders Hyderabad FC with two games in hand. ATKMB were not at their best in the last game but did just enough to secure three points, underlining their might yet again as one of the contenders.

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Head coach Juan Ferrando also made the right changes and upped the ante the moment they conceded the opening goal of the game, pressing deeper and also keeping more of the ball.

"It is not necessary to think about the past. In football nothing is constant. Every game is different," said Ferrando addressing ATK Mohun Bagan's winless record against Mumbai City.

Mumbai City FC

Mumbai, on the other hand, haven't won a game in six games and have slipped to sixth place in the table having 18 points from 12 matches. They too have games in hand like ATK Mohun Bagan but goals have dried up for the defending champions and that is a cause of worry for Des Buckingham.

Buckingham has said that they will stick to their style of playing football keeping more of the ball but against ATKMB who have Liston Colaco and Manvir Singh bombing down the flanks with Hugo Boumous and David Williams to support upfront, their full-backs and defenders will have their task cut out.

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"I am looking forward to the game. They are obviously a different team from the time we played them last. The players are keen to go strong as we can in the last eight games of the regular season," said Buckingham.

The last time the two heavyweights met, Mumbai thrashed the Mariners 5-1 as they enjoyed a rich vein of form at the start of the season to then drop midway and go winless for six games.

Team news

Des Buckingham will be without the services of their regular right-back Amey Ranawade. The 23-year-old was sent off after receiving a second yellow card in their last match against NorthEast United FC. Newcomer Diego Mauricio is still quarantining himself following his transfer to the Islanders. Hence, he will be unavailable as well. Apart from these absentees, Buckingham has a match-ready roster to choose from.

Juan Ferrando on the other hand has a revitalised squad at his disposal. Most players have returned to training after completing their quarantine. No notable injuries or suspensions indicate that the Spanish coach will have a full-strength squad to choose from.

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Head-to-Head

The Mariners and the Islanders have faced each other four times prior to this fixture. In spite of both teams being tagged as the heavyweights in the ISL, ATK Mohun Bagan are yet to secure a win against Mumbai City FC.

Probable Lineups

Mumbai City (4-2-3-1): Mohammed Nawaz (GK); Vignesh Dakshinamurthy, Mourtada Fall (C), Rahul Bheke, Mandar Rao Dessai; Lalengmawia Ralte, Ahmed Jahouh; Raynier Fernandes, Cassio Gabriel, Bipin Singh; Igor Angulo.

ATK Mohun Bagan (4-2-3-1): Amrinder Singh (GK); Prabir Das, Pritam Kotal (C), Tiri, Subhasish Bose, Deepak Tangri, Carl McHugh; Manvir Singh, Hugo Boumous, Liston Colaco; Roy Krishna.

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Did You Know?

• ATK Mohun Bagan has lost all four of it's matches against Mumbai City in the ISL so far.
• Both ATK Mohun Bagan and Mumbai City FC have the same number of goals scored going into this clash (23).
• Mumbai City ranks third in the ISL fair play rankings table with 7.63 points while ATK Mohun Bagan sits last with 6.93 points.

Telecast

The match between ATK Mohun Bagan and Mumbai City FC will be played at the Fatorda Stadium, Goa. The game will kick-off at 7:30 pm IST. It will be telecasted live on the Star Sports Network. The match will also be streamed on the Disney+Hotstar platform and the JioTV app.