NorthEast United FC have come to face Mumbai City FC on Friday with a superior tag.
It's still early stages of this year's Indian Super League (ISL) where teams are trying to find their feet but having collected full points from both their home games, NorthEast United FC have come to face Mumbai City FC on Friday with a superior tag.
The Mumbai outfit, on the other hand, have broken their losing jinx in Pune, which is no mean achievement. But keeping up the momentum will be the real test for the hosts.
And NorthEast's Portuguese coach Nelo Vingada has already sounded an alarm for Mumbai by saying, "Three results can happen and we are here to make life hard for Mumbai."
It may be a Bollywood battle between owners Ranbir Kapoor and John Abraham off the pitch but on it, two Uruguayans will go head to head to decide the course of the match.
Former Liverpool FC (Uruguay club) striker Emiliano Alfaro has already given a glimpse of his predatory attitude by scoring twice against FC Goa, while Diego Forlan – the golden ball winner of 2010 FIFA World Cup – has lived up to his marquee tag with his cheeky little goal scoring pass for Matias Defederico.
However, Mumbai coach Alexandre Guimaraes refused to bask in the glory of securing an away win in the Maharashtra derby.
"We had a chance to change Mumbai's record in Pune and I am glad that we were successful. But that's it. Now we have to drive ourselves to play better against another superb outfit," he said.
The hazards of such a strenuous tournament are injuries and the Costa Rican wouldn't mind resting Forlan to avoid any mishap.
"We are already without Gaston (Sangoy) and Sony (Norde), so we will have a dialogue with Forlan to know what his side of the story (is). These kinds of players want to play every game and that's commendable but we have to keep the injury issues in mind," Guimaraes said.
The manager also believed that a small Mumbai Football Arena in Andheri would be better than the 55,000-seater DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, which was Mumbai's home ground in the last two seasons.
It remains to be seen how the hosts deal with the offensive trio of Alfaro, Nico Velez, Katsumi Yusa in front an expected full house.
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