The ISL Shield Winners of the last two seasons, Mumbai City FC and Jamshedpur FC meet at Manjeri to fight for a place in the group stages of the AFC Champions League 2023/24 campaign.
MCFC vs JFC Match Details
Date: Tuesday, 4 April 2023
Time: 20:30 (IST)
Venue: Payyanad Stadium, Manjeri
Broadcast / Streaming Details: SONY TEN 2 / FanCode
MCFC vs JFC Match Preview
Mumbai City FC looks forward to getting into the AFC Champions League after a record-breaking ISL season in which they swept aside others to claim the League Winners Shield with 46 points from 20 games. The Islanders also missed the ISL final only by a whisker losing an epic penalty shootout against Bengaluru FC in the semifinal tie with the aggregate score level 2-2 at the end of the second leg. The intention is now to carry their incredible form to the Asian level in a competition they achieved extraordinary heights last year. Des Buckingham’s side was even close to escaping the group stages while becoming the first Indian club to win in the AFC Champions League in the current name and format. To add to that, the Islanders reached the Durand Cup final once again beaten by Bengaluru FC prior to the incredible ISL season. Mumbai City faces Jamshedpur FC in the all-important AFC Club Playoffs on Tuesday against whom they did the double this past season in their record-setting winning run of 11 matches. The Islanders will be slight favorites in this one-off encounter but should not show the opposition the lack of control in the last few games, losing three of their last four games in the ISL season, in order to taste Champions League football for consecutive seasons.
Jamshedpur FC coach Adrian Boothyrod already shot a warning in the build-up of the match stating his side has some unfinished business against the Shield Winners. The Men of Steels came close to being the first side to beat almost invincible Mumbai City in their last meeting in the ISL when Boris Singh gave them the lead in the game played in January this year. Lallianzuala Chhangte’s equalizer and then a freak goal from substitute Vikram Pratap Singh completed the turnaround in the last 10 minutes for a 2-1 win to the visitors. The home side got a lot of confidence from that performance and stitched together a four-game unbeaten run to end strongly in otherwise a miserable ISL campaign. Boothyrod’s side claimed three wins in that period, scoring seven goals and conceding just two that too in a single match in the 3-2 win over Hyderabad FC. The Red Miners won the Winners Shield in the 2021/22 campaign but had a catastrophic title defense in the past season finishing in the second-last position on the table. They gathered only 19 points from 20 games, managed only five wins and lost in eleven. However, their late-season form means Jamshedpur FC have a healthy momentum to take to this crucial clash in order to get the reward they wanted after topping the league last year.
MCFC vs JFC Predicted Lineups
MCFC: Phurba Lachenpa; Rahul Bheke, Mourtada Fall, Mehtab Singh, Vignesh Dakshinamurthy; Apuia, Ahmed Jahouh, Greg Stewart; Lallianzuala Chhangte, Jorge Pereyra Diaz, Bipin Singh
JFC: Vishal Yadav; Nikhil Barla, Pratik Chaudhari, Pronay Halder, Ricky Lallawmawma; Boris Singh, Emmanuel-Thomas, Jitendra Singh, Ritwik Das; Harry Sawyer, Daniel Chima
MCFC vs JFC Head to head
MCFC won - 4
Draw - 3
JFC won - 5
MCFC vs JFC Dream11 Team Prediction
GK: Lachenpa (7.5)
DEF: Fall (8), Mehtab (8), Ricky (8)
MID: Chhangte (9), Boris (8.5), Ritwik (8), Bipin (9)
FW: Stewart (9), Diaz (8.5), Chima (7.5)
Vice-captain: Lallianzuala Chhangte
Captain: Greg Stewart
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