Defending champion Mumbai City FC will be seeking to revive its play-off aspirations when it meets bottom-placed SC East Bengal in an ISL-8 fixture at Fatorda on Tuesday.
Having lost the previous outing against Jamshedpur FC, a win will be high on the agenda for Mumbai City as it meets a side that is low on confidence at the moment.
Mumbai City is placed fifth in the points table with 25 points from 16, and a win will see it entering the play-off zone, nudging out Kerala Blasters, which currently occupies the fourth spot (on 27 points).
The champion's performance has been inconsistent, which was evident in the way it remained winless in seven matches before recovering with successive wins following the 13th round.
READ: ISL 2021-22: We’ll try to win everything, says Mumbai City FC captain Mourtada Fall
The loss against Jamshedpur in the 16th round came as a big dampener for the side. With four more matches to go, Mumbai City coach Des Buckingham hoped his side regains the winning form and returns to the title contest.
“We are clear what we want as a group and until that's not possible we want to approach this game in an upbeat manner which will set us up for the final three games in the best position at the end of the season,” Buckingham said.
SC East Bengal, on 10 points from 17 matches, has dropped out of the title race long back and will be playing for pride. The red-and-gold brigade has won just one game so far but could have had more success if it had not dropped points from winning positions in the seven draws it has to its name.
“The ISL is a very competitive league, where there’s not much of a difference between the teams in the top half and bottom half. Any team can beat any team on their day,” East Bengal coach Mario Rivera said.
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