The second leg of the first semi-final of the 2023-24 Indian Super League season will be played between Mohun Bagan Super Giant and Odisha at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan Stadium in Kolkata on Sunday.
Odisha will come into this match with a slender advantage, as they defeated Mohun Bagan Super Giant by a 2-1 margin in the first leg. The Kalinga Warriors will be desperate to win this match as they are fighting for their first ISL title and lost the Super Cup final in January as well.
Head coach Sergio Lobera discussed the upcoming challenge with a look back on the 5-2 win against MBSG in Kolkata earlier this season.
The former Goa head coach said,
“Big game against a big team, in a very good stadium, a difficult place to play but we did it in the AFC Cup also. Absolutely, when you are playing in front of a lot of people with a stadium like this full, it means you are playing for something important. I think it’s a motivation for me as a coach, for the players, I think it’s good to play this kind of thing.”
On the other hand, the Mariners will find themselves in a place they were in before the last league stage match against Mumbai City as they needed a victory to win the ISL League Winners’ Shield. Over 60,000 fans in attendance helped the team from Kolkata to win that match and they will be hoping for a repeat this Sunday.
What have they done so far?
Mohun Bagan Super Giant came into the semi-finals high on confidence, as they won the League Winners’ Shield for the first team since the formation of the new entity. In the league, the Mariners won 15 of their 22 matches and finished on top with 48 points.
Antonio Lopez Habas’ team scored more goals than any other team and a big reason behind their Shield-winning run was their form since the appointment of the Spaniard. Mohun Bagan Super Giant played 12 matches in ISL this year and they lost only one of those games while winning nine games.
On the other hand, Odisha also had a league campaign that they can be proud of, as they were in the race for the Shield before losing out in the last few weeks. With 11 wins in 22 matches and 39 points, Lobera’s men finished 4th in the standings.
But since they could not finish in the top two, the Kalinga Warriors had to play an additional match at the knockouts, where they faced Kerala Blasters. Despite trailing at one stage, Odisha showed real character to score two late goals and get a 2-1 win.
Head to Head Record
Odisha and Mohun Bagan Super Giant have locked horns a total of ten times in the league, where the Mariners have won four games, while the Kalinga Warriors have just one league game, which came in the last meeting. The other five matches ended in draws.
As for the meetings in this season, the first tie was played in Kolkata where Odisha held the home team to a 2-2 draw. Then in the tie at Bhubaneshwar in February, the two teams played out a 0-0 draw.
Apart from the two league meetings, the two teams met twice in the AFC Cup Group Stage where MBSG defeated Odisha 4-0 in Bhubaneswar but lost 5-2 at home in Kolkata which allowed the Juggernauts to qualify for the Inter-Zonal Semi-Final.
In the first leg of the semi-final, Odisha defeated Mohun Bagan Super Giant 2-1, where Carlos Delgado and Roy Krishna scored for the Kalinga Warriors, while Manvir Singh was on the scoresheet for Habas’ team.
Team News
Lobera would have preferred to not make changes to his team as he usually likes to maintain his winning combination. However, he will be forced to make a few changes to his team that won 2-1 in the first leg of the tie, as Delgado is serving a one-game suspension after being handed marching orders in the last game.
In place of the Spanish central defender, Lobera does not have plenty of options but to slot in Narender Gahlot. This change will also free up an overseas slot, which he can use to replace Princeton Rebello with Diego Mauricio.
Jason Cummins is expected to start for MBSG in Armando Sadiku’s absence
Habas will be in a similar situation as his fellow Spaniard, as he too will be forced to make a change when he does not want to. From the Mariners’ camp, Albanian striker Armando Sadiku will miss this match as he was shown a red card in the first-leg fixture.
But unlike Lobera, Habas will have a like-for-like replacement as Australian striker Jason Cummings is expected to slot in for Sadiku. Sahal Abdul Samad is now fit and training with the team, but given he has not played for a while with his injury troubles, it is unlikely that Habas will throw him into the deep end in a crucial match like this.
Predicted Starting XIs
Mohun Bagan Super Giant (3-2-4-1): Vishal Kaith; Anwar Ali, Hector Yuste, Subhasish Bose; Joni Kauko, Abhishek Suryavanshi; Manvir Singh, Dimitrios Petratos, Anirudh Thapa, Liston Colaco; Jason Cummings
Odisha (4-2-3-1): Amrinder Singh; Amey Ranawade, Mourtada Fall, Narender Gahlot, Jerry Lalrinzuala; Ahmed Jahouh, Puitea; Jerry Mawihmingthanga, Roy Krishna, Isak Vanlalruatfela; Diego Mauricio
Prediction
Lobera’s team has played well in every meeting against a strong Mohun Bagan Super Giant team this season, as they drew two and won two fixtures apart from losing one AFC Cup fixture.
But this encounter will be different from the previous ones, with the entire stadium cheering for the men in Maroon and Green. Hence, Mohun Bagan Super Giant will start this match as the favorites.