Kolkata: East Bengal take on Mumbai FC in a rescheduled I-League encounter at the Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday afternoon in a contest that should be of interest to Shillong Lajong FC and Rangdajied United FC.
The Kolkata club made up significant ground in the title race at the weekend as they defeated Rangdajied 3-1 while none of the top four could register a win and three of them suffered losses.
East Bengal are now 10 points behind leaders Bengaluru FC and they have played three games less.
The red-and-gold brigade thus need maximum points to get closer to the top.
However East Bengal have not won back-to-back I-League games all season and were beaten by Mumbai 3-2 in the reverse fixture.
Armando Colaco has plenty of injury worries with both James Moga and Seminlen Doungel also coming off with knocks against Rangdajied.
It remains to be seen whether either of them is passed fit for this clash but the whole squad is well aware that they can not afford to drop points.
Mumbai are still threatened by relegation as they are only three points above rock-bottom Mohammedan Sporting.
Khalid Jamil’s side have only suffered one defeat in the last 10 games but they are the draw specialists in the league with six of the last seven ending all square.
A victory for EB will take them straight to third place from seventh, knocking Lajong down to sixth from fifth.
Meanwhile, even a draw would see Mumbai (currently in 11th place) displace Rangdajied (9th) and United SC (10th).
All three would be tied on 21 points, but Mumbai have the better goal difference. (Agencies)
