Kolkata: Mumbai City and FC Pune will aim to continue their winning momentum when they both lock horns in a mouth-watering Maharashtra derby clash at the Sree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium in Pune, on Wednesday.
Both the teams suffered defeats in their opening match of the Indian Super League but bounced back with convincing wins in their next encounter. While Mumbai defeated Goa, Pune trounced ATK by a 4-1 margin.
But the ‘Islanders’ captain Lucian Goian is confident of Mumbai’s defence holding firm against Pune’s attacks. The biggest positive for Popovic was the coming to form of both of his star signing Marcelinho and Alfaro. Goian however refuses to make any specific plans for the two and considers Pune dangerous as a team.
“I know that him (Marcelinho) along with Alfaro, they’re good players and it won’t be easy. But like I’d said in Bangalore too, we don’t like making plans for specific players. We’re playing against 11 players and our plan is to stop all 11 of them. We’ve seen most of these players play last season too and we’re sure we can use that to our advantage,” said Goian.
The Mumbai defence crumbled under pressure against Bengaluru and may face the same fate against a team that possess one of the best attacks this season. Goian however wants his team to defend together. “You have to understand that when a team defends, it’s 11 players who defend. It starts from the strikers through the midfield and then at the back,” added the experienced Brazilian who with 18 tackles is only second to 21 tackles of Ahmed Jahouh of FC Goa.
Alexandre Guimarães however believes that the hard fought win against Goa will boost the confidence of his boys and although he acknowledged the attacking prowess of Pune, he added that Mumbai will come into the game with a ‘different confidence.’
“Winning at home is always great and it is understandable that it gives the players a different confidence because they got the result they fought for,” he said ahead of the match.