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Air India and Sporting Clube de Goa are on the same boat and meet again in less than a month in the Round XIV match in the I-League football championship, at the Balewadi Sports Complex ground here on Saturday (January 4).
The two teams meet in the return leg with the home team hoping to carry on the form they showed during their away match on December 2 as the league enters home stretch with the start of the New Year.
Both the teams are on 11 points from 11 matches. Nothing separates them at this stage so it will be an ideal stage for Air India, which is playing at home ground after a gap of 20 days, to grab the advantage. The Anthony Fernandes-coached team will look to steal full points given that they have much better record on their home ground than their opponents.
Air India drew against two North-Eastern teams and beat in-form Mumbai FC comprehensively at this ground after having scored 1-0 win over Sporting Clube de Goa at Fatorda. In contrast, Sporting lost both their recent home matches, once against Air India and before that to Pune FC, which makes them weaker between the two teams.
Henry Ezeh and Elijah Junior will steer Air India on the morrow with Micky Fernandes and Vijith Shetty in the midfield providing them back-up. But it is time Sandesh Gadkari showed some class and performed much better than what he has done in the last few matches.
Rahul Bheke and Ramandeep Singh have been cornerstones in the defence line-up and should provide sheet anchor role as they have done in the past.
As regards to Sporting Clube de Goa, the Goan team will bank on Stephen Barretto and Seiya Sugishita to break through Air India’s tough defence, but their new Spaniard coach Oscar Bruzon will have to motivate his boys to start afresh and carry on the New Year on a new note.
One positive for Sporting is that they are coming here after scoring an away win, a 3-1 triumph against Prayag United SC. Bruzon is hoping that his boys will go into the match on a high moral, knowing well that Air India has lost to Salgaocar FC 0-4 in the previous round.