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The return leg of the first semifinal between Mumbai City FC and Atletico de Kolkata in the Indian Super League – Season 3 at the Mumbai Football Arena on Tuesday evening hopefully will a rematch of the game on Saturday night in Kolkata, which was an entertaining and high voltage affair.
ATK go into the second leg with a 3-2 advantage over Mumbai City, who will miss their talisman, Uruguayan Diego Forlan, who will miss the match due to a suspension.
The question is if Atletico de Kolkata can put together another such aggressive game, while Mumbai City FC need to show more presence in their game, if they are to overturn the deficit and certain players will need to show themselves in the absence of Forlan.
Mumbai City FC head coach Alexandre Guimaraes said ahead of the return leg, “We have some things to resolve and firstly it is about intensity and I have been talking to players that these kinds of games have to be played with different intensity, not just physical but also mental and we also have to solve the absence of Diego.”
The Costa Rican, however, believes that his team will fight to make the final and are in with a good chance of turning things around at home on Tuesday. “The players are excited to play in front of our fans and I hope we have the stadium filled to capacity tomorrow to push our players and we know that we have to play very smart. The situation is not desperate for us because it is only one goal [deficit], so we have to play better than the last game and I still believe that we are alive and we have our chance and we will fight hard to get to the final,” Guimaraes added.
Meanwhile Atletico de Kolkata coach Jose Molina assured his team won’t go into a defensive mold. “We are going to play with the same mentality, the way we played in the first match and we will try to score goals and we will try to win and we will see tomorrow how the match goes once it starts. We always try to play the same way and be good in defence and keep the ball and try to score goals,” the Spaniard said.
“We are going to play the same way and nothing is going to change and we will play the same way we have since our first game of the league,” the 46-year-old said.
“We didn’t do anything different against Mumbai and we tried to do what we have been trying to do from day one. [It’s just that] some days you have the blessings to score goals. I think now we are playing better and the players did really well in the last match and it was a great match and as I have told you we will continue playing the same way,” Molina added.
An interesting encounter awaits us and if this game is anywhere near the first leg, then it will be another cracker of a game.
