Thursday night in the ISL brings us playoff contenders Mumbai City play host to struggling NorthEast United. Mumbai need to win if they are going to have any chance of making the playoffs this season whilst NorthEast need to pick their form up if they are going to avoid finishing bottom of the league. With both teams needing a win, I am sure this will be an entertaining game. Let’s get straight to the stats.
The Stats…
Mumbai City head into the game in 7th place, six points behind 4th place Jamshedpur. They have a decent goalscoring record in the league this season, scoring twenty-one goals across the season. They also have a decent defensive record, conceding twenty-one goals over the course of the season. They head into the game in mixed form, losing three and winning two of their previous five. They need to beat NorthEast today and the rest of their games to have a chance of making the playoffs.
NorthEast United head into the game, at the time of writing, in 9th place, two points behind 8th place ATK and on the same points as bottom side Delhi. They have the worst goal scoring record in the league, after only managing ten goals in sixteen games. They have a pretty poor defensive record, conceding twenty-three goals over the course of the season. They head into the game in awful form after drawing one and losing four of their previous five games. They desperately need a win if they don’t want to finish the season in bottom position.
Previous Encounter…
The last time these two teams met was back in December 2017 and the game ended in a comfortable 2-0 win for Mumbai. Balwant Singh bagged himself a brace with a goal either side of half-time and helped Mumbai take the three points.
NorthEast dominated the stats, having more possession and more shots, however, they didn’t create anything that was a real threat to Mumbai and suffered a loss. NorthEast will be wanting to get revenge over Mumbai whilst Mumbai will be looking to do the same this time around.
The Game Itself…
To be completely honest with you, I cannot see NorthEast causing Mumbai any problems whatsoever. NorthEast have been truly awful in recent times and over the course of the season. I can say now that they will finish bottom of the league, I’d put that as a special house bet for Jake.
Mumbai will be happy with the three points, I don’t think they will care how they get them, they will just care about getting them. I expect Mumbai to enjoy a little more of the action and will obviously cause NorthEast a lot more problems than NorthEast will cause Mumbai.
Key Player…
Looking at NorthEast it is quite difficult to pick any player that may cause Mumbai any problems. The only two that come to mind are Doungel and Marcinho, however, both didn’t play in the last match so who knows if they will even play.
Mumbai have a couple of very good players. Players like Emana and Everton Santos can always cause trouble for any teams but the two players I have in mind are Balwant Singh and Thiago Santos. Both players are fantastic for Mumbai and I have chosen Balwant Singh for my Key Player because I think he will score at least once against a very poor NorthEast side.
Finally…
With all this being said, I’ll simply leave you with this. I expect Mumbai to breeze past NorthEast by two or three goals. Northeast have looked terrible and they are coming up against a team who have something massive to play for. It doesn’t look good for NorthEast.
