Odisha FC Team News
After starting the season with away fixtures and then playing a couple in Pune as their home stadium was getting ready, Josep Gombau's team have notched two home wins in a row at the Kalinga Stadium. They edged Jamshedpur 2-1 before defeating Chennaiyin 2-0 in their last outing.
Ahead of the reverse fixture, Gombau felt that being able to play at their home ground, in front of their supporters, should give the players extra motivation to do well.
The Indian players of Odisha, Vinit Rai and Jerry Mawihmingthanga in particular, have been stand-out performers, with the latter scoring two goals and registering four assists from the wings. Aridane has been very effective in the attacking third and has six goals and an assist to his name. Add Xisco Hernandez' technique to the midfield and Odisha have a side that can take full control of a game.
Mumbai City Team News
Mumbai City's three-game winning run was brought to a halt as they suffered a defeat at the hands of an in-form ATK side in their last game. They have lost only once in their last seven fixtures and this run of form has seen them climb to the fourth spot with 16 points from 11 matches.
Mumbai assistant coach Marco Leite believes it is important to focus on themselves more than their opponents and is confident that they can do a good job against a top-four rival.
The injury to Paulo Machado is a huge setback for the visitors as he is a key player in midfield. However, in-form striker Amine Chermiti and last season's top scorer Modou Sougou, who recently scored a brace to break his duck, will look to feed off crosses from the likes of Diego Carlos who has threatened from wide areas.
Probable Line-ups
Odisha FC: Arshdeep Singh (GK), Narayan Das, Carlos Delgado, Shubham Sarangi, Xisco Hernandez, Marcos Tebar, Martin Guedes, Jerry Mawihmingthanga, Nandhakumar Sekar, Daniel Lalhlimpuia, Aridane Santana
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
Prediction
Mumbai have crossed the most in the league so far and only ATK and FC Goa have netted more goals, which sets up for an even yet exciting contest in Bhubaneswar. With back-to-back wins Odisha will be confident heading into the contest, but you can't write off Mumbai who have lost just one game in the last seven games.
Match Info
Match kicks off at 7:30 PM IST on Saturday (January 11)
Live on Star Sports Network
Live Streaming on Hotstar & Jio TV