Mumbai City FC vs Chennaiyin FC -- Friday, 16 October

Later tonight, Mumbai City are playing their first home game against a buoyant Chennaiyin FC. After having mauled FC Goa 4-0 at Fatorda, Materazzi's men are on a roll. Mumbai City, after the 3-1 defeat to Pune City, did well on their trip to Kerala and earned a 0-0 draw. And they could have won if a couple of decisions had gone their way. Boosted by the return of several national team players, both teams will be looking to take the best out of their previous outing and improve on them. For both, their clean sheet-earning defenders are a key to success. Mumbai City fielded an all-imported back four consisting of Aitor Fernandez, Pavel Cmovs, Frantz Bertin and Darren O'Dea for most of the game against Kerala, although Ashutosh Mehta was there at right back for half an hour. But the Chennaiyin attack will be much more fierce than the bottom-heavy, 5-3-2 loving Kerala Blasters. Even if you manage to clip the runs of hat-trick man Mendoza with Ashutosh/Aitor and Fernandez before him, there are still players like Elano, Jayesh Rane and Raphael Augusto just waiting for your midfield to make a mistake. And there will be plenty of mistakes if they keep a similar midfield from the last game. Now, without Andre Moritz, the mid-section looks even weaker for the home team. The only way for Mumbai City to work their way through the game is to hope that Norde, Sunil or someone gets them an early lead so they can bite down on defence. But all in all it looks like Chennaiyin have the speed and guile to claim this game by a one goal margin, unless they make serious blunders like in their opening game against ATK.