I-League 2017: Chennai City FC vs Kingfisher East Bengal, Preview

East Bengal had a disastrous start to the season in which they squandered a two-goal advantage to settle for a draw against Aizawl in their opening encounter and later lost by a solitary goal to their arch-rivals Mohun Bagan in the first derby.

Striker Willis Plaza's off form had only compounded their problems. Two wins in a row and a double strike by Plaza in the last encounter against Churchill Brothers which included a late winning strike only means that they are well back on track and have asserted themselves as one of the favourites to win the title this time.

Khalid Jamil, the East Bengal gaffer, is naturally a relieved man and on the eve of the match said that his boys are focused and are a confident lot now. The only Achilles ankle for the team seems to be their defence which has let in 6 goals in the past 4 encounters. Against Churchill too, the defence looked shaky and let in two soft goals.

Therefore, how the likes of Arnab Mondal and Eduardo perform remains to be seen and a lot will certainly depend on that. Chennai City, on the other hand, grabbed full points for the first time this season when they defeated Churchill 2-0 on Tuesday. This will be their first home encounter and they will certainly be raring to go.

Their coach Soundrarajan though sounded upset about the fixtures and the way they had to travel from Goa to Coimbatore and play two matches within a span of 3 days. Chennai City too are guilty of letting in soft goals and that is one aspect they will certainly look to improve upon against East Bengal.

The last time these two teams met at Chennai City's backyard the home team had triumphed and that had pretty much dealt a severe blow to East Bengal's title aspirations. Khalid Jamil has been in the news off late for his superstitions, the latest being taking Willis Plaza to pre-match press conferences as he did against Lajong and Churchill.

Plaza was seen attending the press conference with Khalid for the Chennai match too. East Bengal fans will certainly hope his superstitions pays off today and as for team East Bengal, after the derby loss they will certainly look to gift their fans a win three days ahead of Christmas and in the process avenge last year's defeat.

Probable XIs:

Chennai City FC: Poljanec(gk), Shumeiko, Pradeep, Vanspaul, Joachim, Ravanan, Jesuraj, Soosai Raj(C), Sinivasan, Sebastian, Murilo

East Bengal: Mirshad(gk), Arnab(C), Eduardo, Prakash, Salam, Baji, Katsumi, Amna, Ralte, Cavin Lobo, Plaza.