Highlights, ISL 2018, Mumbai City FC vs Jamshedpur FC: Visitors add on to hosts' woes

Preview: Mumbai City FC, who trounced FC Goa 4-3 in their last Indian Super League game, would like to continue their winning streak when they lock horns with Jamshedpur FC.

Interestingly, Jamshedpur had also emerged victorious 1-0 against ATK in their last ISL game and would also be keen to beat Mumbai in their back-yard.

Presently, Jamshedpur are on the fifth spot having 19 points from 13 games, while Mumbai are a place down on the sixth position, after grabbing 17 points from 12 matches. A win, thus, will be crucial for the two sides to bridge the gap between the top three sides.

File image of Mumbai City FC players. Image courtesy: Twitter/@MumbaiCityFC

In the last two home games, Mumbai were trounced 1-0 and 3-1 by visiting Kerala Blasters and Bengaluru FC, respectively.

Thus, the home players would like to erase those memories and go all guns blazing on Thursday at the Andheri Sports Complex.

Mumbai's defence is solid with a back-line comprising defenders Gerson Vieira and Lucian Goian, backed up by an alert custodian in Amrinder Singh, who has on numerous occasions saved goals for his team. They also have another goal- keeper in Kunal Sawant, who can chip in if required.

However, their defence will have to put their act together if they want to stop the opposition strikers and not commit mistakes like in the past two games, where they conceded a total of four goals.

For the home side, striker Balwant Singh, Brazilian Everton Santos, highly-impressive attacking mid-fielders Brazilian Thiago Santos and Cameroonian Achille Emana can breach any good defence and Jamshedpur's one would be no exception.

But as their opponents have some good defenders, it will test the skills of Mumbai players.

On the other hand, Jamshedpur have a strong defence in Anas Edathodika, Andre Bikey, Spanian Jose Luis Espinosa Arroyo, Robin Gurung and Shouvik Ghosh.

They also possess mid-fielders like Brazilian Emerson Gomes De Moura, Mehtab Hossain, Souvik Chakrabarti, Tridade Goncalves, Wellington Priori, who will have to play their role to perfection if the team needs to win.

The performance of Jamshedpur strikers Nigerian Izu Azuka, Kervens Belfort and Sumeet Passi would also be crucial if the Steve-Coppell managed team has to defeat Mumbai.

By the record and performance, Mumbai look as favourites, but Jamshedpur could steal the show.

With inputs from PTI