After playing generous hosts to the legendary Pele in their first home match at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata, defending ISL champions Atletico de Kolkata travel to the Balewadi stadium in Pune for their next encounter against FC Pune City.
The Antonio Lopez Habas coached ATK are at the top of the table with seven points and more importantly they are unbeaten. They opened the tournament with a 3-2 win against Chennaiyin FC and drew 1-1 against FC Goa and nicked Kerala Blasters 2-1 in the home match. The team practised in Kolkata on Friday morning and are scheduled to reach here late in the evening. Defender Rino Anto bought at Rs. 90 lakh will be available for the visitors.
The home team coach David Platt, taking into account the hot and humid conditions, has rotated the players so far and he’s expected to do the same in the fourth straight match on home soil. He did not appear to be too disturbed by the 1-2 loss to Delhi Dynamos. ``Strangely enough, I am more pleased with the performance (against Dynamos) than with our previous two games. I think when you go a goal behind, you quickly run out of time to get back into the game since teams defend deep and they limit the options to score. So, the disappointing thing is that a goal was given by a set-piece, by a free header at the back post and the goal wasn’t created against us. People say if we hadn’t conceded, we would have levelled things but I think the same goes for Delhi too,” Platt said after the match against Roberto Carlos’ side.
The former England midfielder is likely to make optimum use of Jackichand Singh and Eugeneson Lyngdoh, both of whom have returned from the World Cup qualifier match against Oman and even played against the Dynamos. There will be opportunities for Bikash Jairu and Pritam Kotal as well.
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