East Bengal entertain Mumbai in what is the penultimate round of sixteen game in the Super Cup. You’re probably wondering why I’m doing this preview instead of Steve and I’ve got to be honest, so am I. He claims that he didn’t have time to do it which on a normal day I would believe, however, the only thing that makes me doubt that is the fact that the latest part of the Delhi season review was done, yet this wasn’t.
In conclusion, I’ve decided that he must’ve got all emotional when he started writing about Uche and couldn’t handle writing once again. That’s all speculative, of course.
East Bengal Can Make It Four I-League Sides Into The Last Eight
As has been the case more often than not in this tournament, this sees I-League face-off against ISL and on the whole, you’d have to say that the I-League sides are looking the more impressive out of the two. It’s difficult to look past another I-League triumph in this game due to the fact that Mumbai’s squad is looking rather depleted for a number of reasons.
Everton Santos, Thiago Santos, Leo Costa and Marcio Rosario are the notable absentees as the Brazilian quartet are thought to have gone back to their homeland to try and get more football under their belts before (hopefully) returning to India at the start of next season. It means that Mumbai’s only foreign players are skipper Lucian Goian and the lynchpin that is Achille Emana.
To be fair, if you only wanted two, you’d probably pick those, so maybe it hasn’t worked out that bad after all. Credit must go to Mumbai gaffer Alexandre Guimaraes as he’s only too aware of how tough the game against East Bengal will be and he’s counting on the Indian players to stand up and be counted:
“This is the time for our local guys to take the responsibility and show their potential on the pitch. We have seen a few of their matches and surely tomorrow’s match is going to (be) very competitive and (a) taxing one.”
He’s got a point as it’s probably fair to say that if East Bengal didn’t only pick up five points from a possible twelve in their last four games, they would’ve more than likely won the I-League. So, maybe they just choke when it really matters? They’ve had more than enough time to put it right regardless as nearly a month has gone since they played their last league game.
Seven Goals In Three Games
In terms of a danger man, for Mumbai to watch out for, Dudu Omagbemi jumps out as he had scored eight goals from eight starts this season. As always, stats can be altered by perception, so it’s worth noting that out of those eight, seven of them have come in the last three. Worth keeping an eye on.
I’m not going to harp on about much else because I’ve got 101 other things I need to be doing and I’m only doing this as a favour for Steve, so we’ll leave that there.
For what it’s worth, I think East Bengal will qualify.
Tune in tomorrow to find out what happened.
