Mumbai City FC host Kerala Blasters FC in an eagerly awaited Indian Super League (ISL) match at the Mumbai Football Arena on Sunday.
Mumbai are yet to lose a game all season, sitting on a seven-match winning streak and one win away from breaking the ISL record for the most consecutive wins.
Blasters, on the other hand, have been unbeaten in their last eight fixtures. Incidentally, their last loss was to Mumbai in October at home.
The last five games involving these two sides have all had at least two goals, and none of those games have been draws, which all points to an end-to-end fixture involving some of the best attacking talent in the league.
Mumbai continue to be in a race at the top with Hyderabad FC, with a win on Sunday guaranteeing them first place with a two-point cushion. The two teams have kept up this pattern for over five weeks now, but the pressure to get three points might be a shade higher on Mumbai given that a loss to Blasters would put them just two points clear of them.
Mumbai head coach Des Buckingham was mostly focused on his own side when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “We don’t look at the opposition too much in terms of streaks – the same we don’t look at our own streak. I’ve spoken about making sure that we just focus on our own game, and preparing ourselves as well as we can to face what will be a very tough and challenging Blasters side,” he said.
Blasters have had an excellent comeback story so far this season. Having won the season opener, they fell to three straight defeats to find themselves hovering close to the bottom of the table. At that point, they had conceded ten goals in four games. Since then, they've conceded only five in eight games, and have been at their free-flowing best in attack. They've failed to win only once during this period.
Aside from a tightened defence, a lot of Blasters' success has come through the dynamic trio of Dimitrios Diamantakos, Ivan Kaluzhnyi and Sahal Abdul Samad, who have 13 goals among them so far.
"I must be honest, as a coach I like to play these kinds of games. Even a long time ago as a player, I preferred to play these kinds of games. Because these kinds of games push you to show your best level. When you compete against the best teams, you want to be the best. And this is a game where the players will not lack motivation or energy. It's something special. All the players and coaches must be happy to enjoy the chance to play this game," said Blasters' head coach Ivan Vukomanovic.
The two sides have met each other 17 times in the ISL , with Mumbai winning seven times, Blasters winning on four occasions, and six games ending in draws. Last season, Blasters did the double against Mumbai.
(With inputs from ISL Media)
