A keen contest is expected when Mahindra United cross swords with Sporting club de Goa in the second leg of the ONGC Cup National Football League.
Mumbai team will be without their Brazilian striker Barreto who is out with injury.
MARGAO: A keen contest is expected when title aspirants Mahindra United cross swords with Sporting club de Goa in the second leg of the ONGC Cup National Football League (NFL) to be played here at Nehru stadium on Friday.
Sporting placed 5th in the league table with 19 points from 11 outings with five wins, four draws and two losses, will be going all out for a win to improve their position. While Mahindra, placed second with 26 points below table toppers East Bengal (28) are seven points ahead of Sporting club de Goa. Full points will keep the jeepmen in the hunt for top placing. It will also be a revenge tie for Mahindra, who had lost to Sporting by 0-1 in the first leg in Mumbai.
Mahindra coach Derrick Pereira’s main worry is the forward line as their key striker Brazilian Jose Ramirez Barreto is suffering from a hamstring injury, and is doubtful for Friday’s match.
“Boys know that it is a crucial fixture and they will definitely put up a good show and emerge winners,” said Mahindra coach Derrick Pereira. Sporting coach Clifford Chukwuma was optimistic of winning and said his team would go all out for a win. “Our first task will be to get the better of Mahindra and snatch points as we have beaten them in the first leg and need to win all the remaining matches to catch up with East Bengal as we are also in the race for the title,” said Chukwuma.
The home team have a good attacking line up spearheaded by captain Dudu Omagbemi. Helping him up front will be his Nigerian partner Edeh Chidi.
Mahindra will have to once again depend on Ghanaian Yusif Yakubu and K Anees to lead the attack along with Sushant Mathew, Subhas Chakraborty, S Venkatesh and Stevan Dias in the middle.
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