Mumbai City FC look to tame struggling Pune City

Mumbai City FC will look to return to the top position of the Indian Super League table as Alexandre Guimaraes’s team return home after three excellent away fixtures.

The last home game resulted in a 0-1 loss to struggling FC Goa and they will want to stay sharp against another struggling team, FC Pune City, in the Maharashtra derby clash at Mumbai Football Arena here on Thursday.

Pune revived their sinking campaign with impressive 2-1 win over Atletico de Kolkata at home on Sunday and will want to build on that. They played free flowing football against Kolkata and reaped the benefits. When these two teams met in their opening game in Pune, Diego Forlan’s teasing ball for Matías Defederico sealed the deal for Mumbai City. But their strikers, like their state rivals, haven’t been able to score much barring in a 3-3 draw against Delhi Dynamos.

All their four wins are by 1-0 margins, something that Pune City coach Antonio Habas has noticed.

“After the match against ATK, the group is fantastic. We haven’t been able to score but they also haven’t been able to score much,” Habas maintained.