Kochi: A buoyant Kerala Blasters will clash with Mumbai City FC in their first home match of Indian Super League (ISL) Season 5 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Friday. Blasters will be eyeing nothing less than a win to follow up their convincing 2-0 victory over ATK in the inaugural match.
The side coached by former England goalkeeper David James outplayed former champions ATK in their own backyard. Blasters' new strike force of Slavisa Stojanovic and Matej Poplatnik caught the eye in the opener and the Serbian-Slovenian duo is likely to pose plenty of questions to the Mumbai defenders.
Starting eleven
Defender Nemanja Lakic-Pesic and midfielder Nikola Krcmarevic were the two other foreigners employed by James in the first eleven against ATK. He will be tempted to field the same starting eleven against Mumbai and in that case C K Vineeth, who made a big impression once he made his entry in the second half, is likely to be used as a substitute.
Mumbai, who lost their opening tie 0-2 to Jamshedpur FC, are likely to find the Blasters backline led by captain Sandesh Jhingan and young goalkeeper Dheeraj Singh tough to breakdown.
Crowd support
Blasters, who have roped in Malayalam film star Mohanlal as their brand ambassador after cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar parted ways with the club, will have the backing of the crowd as usual and the Yellow Brigade would love to make it two out of two.
Mumbai, who hosted Jamshedpur on Tuesday, will be up against Blasters who have got adequate rest after playing their opener on Saturday.