Atletico's chance to take revenge against NorthEast

Kolkata, Nov 6: Having put their wobbly campaign back on track with a 4-1 thrashing of Mumbai City FC, champions Atletico de Kolkata (ATK) face a chance to avenge their first-leg loss against NorthEast United FC (NEUFC) in an Indian Super League (ISL) home match here on Saturday.

ATK lost 0-1 to NEUFC at Guwahati in the first leg earlier in the tourment at Guwahati, succumbing to Argentine striker Nicolas Velez's 77th minute strike despite creating several chances only to foozle them. The defeat was their third consecutive one, after losing to FC Pune City and Delhi Dymos. Coincidentally, they went down in all those three matches by a 0-1 margin.

With their backs to the wall, Atletico went into the offensive from the start against Mumbai City FC and thanks to their Cadian forward Iain Hume's superlative performance thrashed the hosts 4-1 to infuse some much-needed confidence in the squad.

Hume's superb hat-trick and Augustine Ferndez's timely goal brought back life into an attack that was seemingly toothless in the earlier matches. Their opponents, NorthEast have lost four, won two and drawn one so far to be at the bottom spot in the standings. After losing their first three matches, they edged past two heavyweights, beat Cheniyin FC (2-0) and ATK (1-0).

All their good efforts were nullified when they suffered a heavy 1-5 reverse against Mumbai but played out a credible 1-1 draw against second-placed Dymos away at Delhi in their last match. IANS