After yet another dominant display of 'Habas Ball' against Jamshedpur FC, the Mariners will play their return fixture of the Kolkata Derby after a long gap of nearly 10 days, against Cuadrat's Emami East Bengal at the Saltlake Stadium. This is a game which will keep our ISL Shield race and respect in Kolkata at stake.
After a slight slump in great football, Habas and his boys displayed their brilliance against Khalid Jamil's formidable Jamshedpur side, and showed who is the real boss in the league right now. The rejuvenated Mohun Bagan side did not take any prisoners and crushed them all by exposing their flaws.
The hot point is the comeback of Manvir Singh, this time not as a goal scorer but as a goal maker, who has really made an impact on the goal-scoring side. Manvir helped all the three main forwards of our team Dimitri Petratos, Cummings and Sadiku to get their goals in the match against JFC.
Noticeably, the recovery of Anwar Ali has been the cherry on top of the things we learned from the previous match. The team is still developing and giving a good sign to contend for the shield.
Thursday training in through our lens💚♥️#MBSG #JoyMohunBagan #আমরাসবুজমেরুন pic.twitter.com/3C2TLlr7Un
— Mohun Bagan Super Giant (@mohunbagansg) March 7, 2024
The arrival of Cuadrat in Emami East Bengal has been quite the rollercoaster for them, from losing the Durand Cup final to Mohun Bagan to winning the Kalinga Super Cup Derby to winning the whole thing (where majority of the top ISL teams were missing their top Indian player due to AFC Asian Cup) to return to their lower mid-table position in the ISL has been quite the one. This side has been struggling in the ISL as they don't really hold the quality domestic offering which their counterparts offer in their squad. Cuadrat's extreme faith only in overseas players (6 on-field foreigners were allowed) has brought them success in the Kalinga Super Cup. However, due to the limitations of overseas players in ISL (only 4 are allowed in ISL), things has became tough for Emami East Bengal.
Read : Know Your Opponent ft. East Bengal FC
But all things are different for both of the sides when it comes to Kolkata Derby. With both sides having their '12th Man' at full potential don't expect a one-sided affair regardless of the form and quality. With both experienced and young key players Cleiton, Vishnu, Naorem Mahesh, Vishnu and of course, Nandha Kumar Emami East Bengal is in no way of backing off from the contest. Underestimating them as a mid-table team would be a dumb call by the gaffer and the players.
Antonio Lopez Habas will miss the services of Defensive Midfielder Deepak Tangri (due to yellow cards), who has been a key player in the midline of play for Habas. Hector and Anwar are ready to start the game for the Mariners. Also, Sahal and Ashish are expected to be atleast in the substitutes & Hamill is also expected to be at the sub for the derby. Whereas Emami East Bengal will only miss Ajay Chettri for the clash on Sunday.
The last fixture between these two sides ended in a thrilling two-all draw with an exciting Dimi Petratos equalizer. But things are really heated up for the shield and the Mariners are here to take all those sweet three points. Click Here to read what happened last time.
PREDICTION :
Mohun Bagan 2-1 Emami East Bengal
Kolkata Derby has never been one-sided this season, with all the fans and the noise at full potential we are on for a thrilling contest. But winning against East Bengal should be a cakewalk if we play sensibly and do not hit those sixes.
PREDICTED XI :
Mohun Bagan SG: Vishal Kaith (GK), Subhasish Bose (C), Hector Yuste, Anwar Ali, Abhishek Suryavanshi, Anirudh Thapa, Joni Kauko, Manvir Singh, Liston Colaco, Dimi Petratos, Jason Cummings.
Emami East Bengal FC: Prabh Sukan Gill, Nishu Kumar, Hijazi Maher, Pantic, Chungnunga, Souvik Chakraborty, Vazquez, Nandha Kumar, Naorem Mahesh, Vishnu, Cleiton Silva
Last Five Encounters:
Super Cup 2024: Mohun Bagan 1-3 East Bengal (Match Review)
Durand Cup 23/24 : Mohun Bagan 1-0 East Bengal (Match Review)
Durand Cup 23/24 : Mohun Bagan 0-1 East Bengal (Match Review)
ISL 22/23 : Mohun Bagan 2-0 East Bengal
Kick OFF: 8:30 PM IST
Venue: Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata, India
Live Stream: Sports18 3 (TV) VH1 India (TV) DD Bangla (TV) Colours Bangla (TV) Jio Cinema (India OTT Stream) One Football (International OTT Stream)
Buy Your Tickets: Click Here (D1,D2,D3; C1,C2, C3 LEFT; A1, A2 RIGHT; A2 VIP RIGHT)
⚔ 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 ⚔
— MBFT : Mohun Bagan (@MBFT89) March 5, 2024
🎯 𝐈𝐒𝐋 𝟏𝟎
🆚 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐂
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📡 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬𝟏𝟖 𝟑, 𝐕𝐇𝟏, 𝐃𝐃 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐚 & 𝐉𝐢𝐨 𝐂𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐚.#JoyMohunBagan #KolkataDerby #MBFT pic.twitter.com/14FdmH2luj
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