Head-to-Head
In the reverse fixture, they shared the spoils after a 2-2 draw earlier this season in November 2019. And the two sides also met in the 2016 semi-finals, which ATK came out victorious over the two legs. Last season, they drew in Mumbai, while Mumbai City won away in Kolkata. All in all Mumbai have an upper hand with two wins to ATK's one and the other four have ended in draws. This fixtures also has seen many red cards in the past.
Mumbai City FC Team News
All eyes would be on Sougou, who finally delivered for his coach and broke his goal-less stint. If he fires on all cylinders, then it will be tough for ATK defence.
Apart from Sougou, it would be interesting to see whether their top-goal scorer Amine Chermiti (four goals), who was benched in the game against Hyderabad, as he was coming from an injury, makes a comeback or not.
Mumbai's key mid-fielder Paulo Machado is out for the entire season owing to an injury. In his absence, others like Diego Carlos, Gabonese Serge Angoue, Mohamed Larbi, Mohammed Rafique, Rowllin Borges and Raynier Fernandes, will have to step up and deliver.
Carlos had a good outing against Hyderabad and would want to continue it. Mumbai, however, need to improve their defence.
Their goal-keeper Amridner Singh conceded a goal in their last game, but saved many and would be more than willing to keep a clean-sheet. In the 10 games he has played, Singh has only two clean-sheets, a concern for the team management.
ATK Team News
ATK, on the other hand, are coming to the contest after going past defending champions Bengaluru FC 1-0 in Kolkata.
The visitors have strong strikers like Balwant Singh, Edu Garcia, David Williams and Roy Krishna, who can challenge any defence and Mumbai would be no exception on their given day.
In fact, Krishna has eight goals to his name this season itself, while Williams has five and Garcia has three goals. So, the three of them combined have 16 goals this season.
ATK defenders like Anas Edathodika, Pritam Kotal, Ankit Mukherjee among others will man the line and they would have to be on their toes to thwart the Mumbai attack. Their custodian Arindam Bhattacharja, who has five clean-sheets to his name, would be keen on adding one more to the list.
Probable Lineups
Mumbai City FC: Amrinder Singh (GK), Pratik Chaudhari, Mato Grgic, Subhasish Bose, Sarthak Golui, Surchandra Singh, Mohamed Larbi, Raynier Fernandes, Serge Kevyn, Amine Chermiti, Modou Sougou
ATK FC: Arindam Bhattacharja (GK), Pritam Kotal, Salam Ranjan Singh, Prabir Das, Agustin Iniguez, Armando Sosa Pena, Sehnaj Singh, Javier Hernandez, Michael Soosairaj, David Williams, Roy Krishna
Predicton
With both Mumbai City and ATK currently on good form, expect this one to be an event contest in which the two teams will go out all guns blazing in a guaranteed intriguing clash. And as history says we could be seeing another draw, but this time a scored-draw rather than the earlier stalemates.
Telecast information
Match kicks off at 7:30pm IST on Saturday (January 4)
Live on Star Sports Network
Streams Live on Hotstar & Jio TV