New Delhi, January 15: Punjab FC will take the field looking to complete the double over Mumbai City FC when both teams take the field in an Indian Super League encounter which will be played here tomorrow at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The Shers outclassed Mumbai City 3-0 in match week 9 at Mumbai and will look to emulate that performance to climb up the standings and be closer to a playoff position. A win will see Punjab FC, who currently are ninth in the table with 19 points go one point below their opponents who occupy the last playoff place with 23 points. The match is scheduled to kick-off at 7:30 PM.
Speaking about the match, PFC Assistant Coach Sankarlal Chakraborty said, “We have analysed our performance in the last match and have prepared ourselves for tomorrow. The players have trained well and are eager to perform better, forgetting what has happened in the last few matches.”
“Mumbai City is a good team who play well while playing away from home. The match which we won against them in Mumbai is in the past and tomorrow will be different”, the coach added while asked about the opponents and their win against them in the previous ISL fixture.
Punjab FC will be without Head Coach Panagiotis Dilmperis in the sidelines after he was shown the red card in their 1-1 draw against NorthEast United in their previous fixture at Guwahati. Khaimingthang Lhungdim, who scored the equaliser against NorthEast and Nikhil Prabhu will also miss the match due to suspensions. Tekcham Abhishek Singh who has been prolific this season will return after missing the last match due to injury. Mumbai City FC, who have been having an inconsistent season, suffered a 3-0 defeat to Jamshedpur FC at home in their previous fixture.
Sharing his thoughts during the pre-match press conference, Captain of the side Luka Majcen said, “The results of our previous matches haven’t been good but the players have been fighting in training. I try to motivate them being a senior player and it is a just a matter of time we play better football.”
While asked about the injury and comeback after that Luka said, “The injury was unfortunate to me but I have completely recovered from it and I am grateful for that I am able to contribute to the team.”
Luka Majcen has made eight goal scoring contributions in the season, five goals and three assists followed by Ezequiel Vidal who has scored four times and provided two assists. The defensive record of Punjab FC have also been terrific this season, with Nikhil Prabhu and Tekcham Abhishek Singh leading the interceptions statistics of ISL with 40 and 29 respectively. The team has conceded only 20 goals in the season and maintains the second best record of all the teams and are also the team who have faced the least number of shots on goal in the season.
As the season is getting closer to the business end, both teams will look to get back to winning ways and with much at stake, it promises to be a thrilling encounter.
