FC Goa and NorthEast United FC will look to getting their campaigns back on track when they clash in an Indian Super League (ISL) football match here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Friday.
Goa haven’t been able to string together consecutive wins so far in the nine matches they have played and, with seven points from nine matches, languish at the foot of the eight-team table.
NorthEast, after getting off to a flying start, have lost their last three matches, and are at fifth with 10 points from eight matches.
Already in the dock, Goa will be without the services of centre back Gregory Arnolin who was given the marching orders in their last match away against Kerala Blasters 1-2.
Though Rafael Luiz nodded in a nice header to open the scoring, Zico’s charges lost the tie after being down to nine men in the second half. Things got worse when they conceded their match-losing goal in the last minute of injury time.
“We will look to take the loss on the chin and look forward to the NorthEast game. We have said it before that every game from here on is important, so we will look to focus on NorthEast,” Goa striker Robin Singh had said after the loss aginst Kerala.
NorthEast coach Nelo Vingada on the other hand slammed his players after the recent free-fall.
“These are the players who played very well in the first 4-5 games, and in the last three games have almost destroyed all that we worked for in the beginning,” Vingada told the media after their solitary goal loss to Mumbai recently, according to a release.
“We can lose, draw or win, these are the only three results in football. But we cannot lose the way we did today (against Mumbai City FC). It felt like we lost more than three points.”
NorthEast will be without the services of the league’s joint top-scorer Emiliano Alfaro against Goa. The Uruguayan striker picked up his fourth yellow card of the season resulting in an automatic one-match suspension.
Goa have won twice against NorthEast in the four meetings between the two sides so far with the other two ending in draws.
