AIZAWL: Former champions Aizawl FC will eye their maiden victory in the new I-League season when they lock horns with neighbours Neroca FC in the Northeastern derby at home on Wednesday.
This will be Aizawl’s first home game of the season while contrastingly for Neroca, it will be their first away encounter. Both sides are languishing at the bottom of the table with identical returns of a draw and a loss in their two previous games so far.
In the previous edition, which was also Neroca’s debut, the two neighbours met twice and it was the side from Manipur which managed to edge out Aizawl in one encounter while the other ended goalless. Aizawl did exceedingly well to salvage a point from their last game away at Kolkata against Mohun Bagan, thanks to a stunning free-kick by ‘super sub’ David Lalrinmuana in the dying minutes.
Neroca, on the other hand, will be smarting from the fact that their two opening games at home could deliver only a point.
Both coaches, however, Aizawl’s Gift Raikhan and Neroca’s Spanish recruit Manuel Fraile, will be desperately hoping that their forwards begin to fire. Besides Mapuia’s strike against Bagan and David’s free-kick, Aizawl’s foreign strikers Ansumanah Kromah and Zikahi Dodoz have not been in the best of form. (PTI)
