Friday night brings us a pretty pointless game. I know I am supposed to hype the matches up, but I am being totally honest. On fire, Delhi Dynamos play host to already qualified Pune City. This game means nothing really, Delhi can’t finish below ATK and above Mumbai, Pune have already qualified for the playoffs, so the only thing they are playing for is, to secure 2nd place. Let’s get straight to the stats.
The Stats…
The hosts, Delhi, are going into the game sitting comfortably in 8th place. That might sound bad but it was only a few weeks ago when they were rock bottom and looking like they would finish there. They have a great goalscoring record in the league, scoring twenty-five goals this season. Their defensive record is the worst in the league, conceding a huge thirty-five goals this season. They are currently on fire right now and are unbeaten in five games, drawing two and winning three.
The visitors, Pune, are sitting in 2nd place and on the same points as Chennaiyin, who are in 3rd place. They have a cracking goalscoring record, managing twenty-eight goals over the course of the season. They have a very good defensive record as well, only conceding nineteen goals all season. They are currently in mixed form, which may hurt them in their hopes for 2nd place, they have drawn one, lost two and won two of their previous five. They need to win this last game to stand any chance of finishing 2nd.
Previous Encounter…
The last time these two sides met was back in November 2017 and it was a brilliant game that featured five goals. The game ended 3-2 to Delhi and, surprisingly, all the goals came in the second half. Even more surprisingly, Uche didn’t score any of the goals. The league was different back then.
The game was a fairly entertaining and both teams put on a show for spectators. Hopefully, this time out we get a similar showing from both sides, however, Pune will want a different result.
The Game Itself…
This game should be fairly entertaining, just like last time out. If this was five or six games ago, it would have been a boring one-sided affair, with Pune coming out with a comfortable win. However, Delhi and Uche have been on fire recently and if they had performed like this, over the whole season, we would be talking about them finishing 2nd.
Anyway, Delhi may actually enjoy the majority of the possession and could dominate proceedings. It’ll be interesting to see if they bench Uche again. Not like it matters, he always scores.
Key Player…
I think you already know who I am picking for this but for the sake of the article, I will go through everyone that I considered. Pune, obviously have some fantastic players, they wouldn’t be where they are with them. One player is Marko Stankovic, he hasn’t had the effect that I thought he would, but he can still be a very dangerous player on his day. Another is Marcelinho, but he stamped on someone and got sent off so he misses the game, complete idiot.
On Delhi’s side of things, we have Matias Mirabaje, who has been fantastic in recent weeks, including his goal against Mumbai a few days ago. It could be the goal of the season. Another player is Chhangte, who also got on the scoresheet against Mumbai. But I have saved the best to last, my Key Player is Kalu Uche. This man has been on fire and finds himself on nine goals in seven games, which is incredible. Hopefully, he finds the net again and improves that record.
Finally…
With all this being said, I will simply leave you with this. I fully expect Delhi to upset Pune in this game. I’m not just saying that because I have adopted them as my ISL team, I am saying it because it’s hard to argue against. Pune are a great side and can easily win this game, but Delhi are unbeaten in five and Uche has nine goals in seven games, can Pune really stop that? I don’t think so but knowing my luck I will be wrong as I can quickly delete this preview once the game is over.
