Indian Football League

Match 50: ATKMB vs. HFC

Preview

Terrific match is on the card tonight as two of the heavyweight teams clash tonight in the Indian Football League. The winner of the match can also go to the top of the table surpassing the defending champions, Mumbai. Thus, there’s a lot to play for in this match and none of the teams will give any room for error as in these crunch games, a single mistake can very well cost all three points.

Talking about the finalists of last season, the green and maroon brigade struggled this season but since the management hired Juan Ferrando, former Goa coach, things have changed for good. The team defeated NorthEast and Goa in their last two matches and the team is once again showing the right attitude and playing attacking football, something that the team needs. Defensively, they have been shambolic and thus they need to adapt the mantra that attack is the best form of defense. It has now been reported by quite a few media outlets that their former star Sandesh Jhingan might make his return to the club following a disastrous time in Croatia. Their striker David Williams is also one step away from leaving the club and thus the coach has some issues that he needs to deal with. Needless to say but a win can solve a lot of problems for them right now; problems that are happening outside the pitch.

Liston Colaco will also be facing his former club as Mohun Bagan is all set to host Hyderabad. He has been in tremendous form and the Coach needs to inspire him to do better because the attacking line at the moment depends a lot on him. Manvir Singh’s form might be a concern but the coach won’t have a headache because of it. Hugo Boumous and Roy Krishna have shown glimpses of what they can do and right now, if they keep up with the momentum and if their defense remains steady, there’s no reason why they can’t win the match.

Speaking about their match against Hyderabad, Coach Ferrando in the pre match press conference said, “I think it is a good game, it is an amazing game because Hyderabad’s style is amazing from my point of view. They have a very good squad. I think it will be an amazing game”. He added, “They have a lot of strong points. Firstly about the centre backs, they are good in build up. Their right and left backs are in position during attacks. They have Edu; I think he is a very good number 10”.

Being unbeaten for 7 games, Hyderabad will be coming to the match with a lot of confidence. Credit goes to Bartholomew Ogbeche for delivering time and time again for the team and proving why he is such a dangerous player. He is already the top scorer of the tournament with 8 goals by his name. Like Ferrando said, their centre back pair has also been great for the club and it won’t be easy at all for the Kolkata based club to score goals when they face Hyderabad. Brazilian midfielder Joao Victor has also been brilliant both offensively and defensively. He can very well be called the Casemiro of Hyderabad.

Speaking about their defense in the league, Coach Manuel Marquez said, “I'm not speaking about Hyderabad. I'm speaking about all the competitions in the world. The team that concedes fewer goals in every competition, finally, will be the champion, the second, or the third. It will be a good season if we get to finish the season and if we are the team that conceded fewer goals in the championship for sure that we will arrive in the top four”.

ATKMB vs. HFC Predicted Line Ups

ATKMB – Amrinder Singh (GK), Pritam Kotal (c), Subhasish Bose, Tiri, Joni Kauko, Deepak Tangri, Carl McHugh, Manvir Singh, Hugo Boumous, Liston Colaco, Roy Krishna.

HFC - Laxmikant Kattimani (GK) Nikhil Poojari, Chinglensana Singh, Joao Victor, Akash Mishra, Hitesh Sharma, Edu Garcia (c), Sahil Tavora, Javi Siverio, Aniket Jadhav, Bartholomew Ogbeche.

Match Prediction

Since the top spot is up for grabs, both the teams will go all out for the victory and as mentioned before, expect a crunch game. The forward line of both these teams is one of the strongest in the league and thus expects some goals. Either of the team can win this fixture for sure but Hyderabad might be slightly ahead because of their steady defense. 

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