ISL: Blasters meet Mumbai in virtual shootout

Vasco (Goa): Kerala Blasters FC and Mumbai City FC will face off in a virtual shootout for a place in the semifinals, in a rescheduled Indian Super League (ISL) fixture at the Tilak Maidan Stadium here on Wednesday.

Blasters are placed fifth in the points table with 30 points from 18 matches, one point less than Mumbai, who are fourth with 31 points from 18 games.

With league leaders Hyderabad FC already through to the semis and Jamshedpur FC and ATK Mohun Bagan needing just one point to confirm their place as well, it is Blasters and Mumbai who are likely to fight it out for the last spot.

Blasters thrashed Chennaiyin FC 3-0 in their last game to get back to winning ways and keep their top-four ambitions firmly intact. Mumbai too beat FC Goa to boost their chances.

"Tomorrow's game is everything you wish for as a football player. It is nice to play against a top team and we have our preparations in place and it doesn't change a lot compared to other games. We will be ready to show our strength on the pitch," Blasters head coach Ivan Vukomanovic said.

"In tomorrow's game, we will see all elements of football. Both teams will fight for points and will fight till the last moment," he added.

For Blasters, Adrian Luna has been in superb form throughout the season and the Uruguayan playmaker sits top of the assists list along with Ahmed Jahouh and Greg Stewart.

With six assists, he sits at the joint top for most assists in Blasters' history along with Jessel Carneiro and Josu Prieto.

Mumbai's lean patch started with their defeat against Blasters in their first leg encounter.

"We are good to go. Jahouh trained with the squad yesterday. We will give him the best chance to play tomorrow. We will assess that on the gameday. Everyone else is good to go," said Mumbai head coach Des Buckingham.

On Blasters, he added: "We just keep concentrating on ourselves. I am not interested in other teams' run of form or results. We should look at our own form and we started this season extremely well. We come into this game with four wins out of the last five. We have started to show some good signs on how we want to play so the focus will be on us."

Mumbai have conceded 20 goals this season, crossing their tally of 18 goals conceded in the league stage of ISL 20-21 in just 11 matches, and Buckingham would hope his team can produce a solid defensive display on Wednesday.