Friday , March 29 2024

I-League: Minerva Punjab FC look positive before taking on debutants NEROCA!

On Friday, December 1, we will could see two squads mainly made up of youngsters, face-off with each other when Minerva Punjab FC takes on NEROCA FC at the Guru Nanak Stadium in Ludhiana.

Minerva Punjab FC held Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan at home last time around and will now host the newly promoted NEROCA FC which is also the first-ever club from Manipur to take part in the top division of Indian football.

The home side were tactically on point in their match against Mohun Bagan where they followed the man-marking strategy which neutralized the Mohun Bagan attack for most parts of the game. Abhishek Ambekar, Captain Sukhdev and Kassim performed exceptionally well while half-time substitute Lago made an instant impact and made life difficult for the Mohun Bagan defence.

Minerva Punjab FC head coach Wankhem Khogen Singh was happy with the squad’s performance.

“We were excellent in the second half against Mohun Bagan. If we keep the same form we can surely collect three points tomorrow,” he told the media.

NEROCA, on the other hand, are playing their first I-League game of the season and that too an away one in Ludhiana, Punjab which is almost 2,700 kms from Imphal. Their strength is to be seen especially with the addition of attacking midfielder Akhlidin Israilov who hails from Kyrgyzstan and has played for Dynamo Kyiv and Dnipro of Ukraine but one thing they will surely miss is their home fans which served them as their 12th man for the whole of their Second Division League campaign. However, they are still a very dangerous team and now the onus is on the Lalit Thapa-led side to prove their mettle in the top flight of Indian Football.

On being asked about their maiden campaign in I-League, NEROCA head coach Gift Raikhan said he will go game by game.

“2 years ago we and Minerva Punjab both tried to win the Second Divison League, that year Minerva were successful but last year we managed to win the Second Division League and that too unbeaten throughout the season. Both Minerva and NEROCA are very young squads but we also have experienced players in Gouramangi Singh and Sushil Singh. It will be interesting to watch them battle for three points,” he added.

If we look at the stats, Minerva Punjab FC are unbeaten against NEROCA. In the 2015-16 Second Division League, Minerva Punjab FC managed to beat NEROCA at home by 3-2 and drew the second match. But Raikhan simply brushed off the stats and said, “Past is past. Let’s focus on what’s about to come.”

It appears to be a cracking fixture and hopes are that it lives up to the expectations. The highly anticipated match will kick-off at 5:30pm tomorrow. The match will be broadcast live on Star Sports 2, Star Sports HD 2 and streamed live on HotStar and Jio TV.

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