Kalinga Super Cup: Mumbai City, Jamshedpur eye first trip to final

Bhubaneswar: Both Mumbai City FC and Jamshedpur FC bowed out of the Kalinga Super Cup at the semifinal stage in the preceding Super Cup, but this season presents them a chance to make the final for the first time ever when they face off at the Kalinga Stadium on Wednesday.

With both sides yet to concede a goal in the tournament so far, it will be fascinating to see who finally unlocks the other’s defence. And if neither can, there are always penalties to settle the scores. Head coach Petr Kratky has the opportunity to take the Islanders to an Asian competition for the third time in the club’s history, and the anticipation is high in the dressing room.

“We’re very excited and very happy to get to the semifinals. We’ll go game by game and get ready for the next final, which is tomorrow. Our expectations are always the highest; we want to win every game, we want to finish as high as we can, so we are here to win and bring the trophy for the club and the fans,” said Kratky.

Jamshedpur FC find themselves in the Kalinga Super Cup semi-final for the third time in a row. They lost 0-2 on both previous occasions to East Bengal (2024) and Bengaluru FC (2023). While the Men of Steel will count on being third-time lucky, head coach Khalid Jamil highlighted that they consider every tournament a new challenge.

“We never think like this (about the previous tournaments). If this is a new challenge in your game, you must think positively and try to get good positive results. We’re playing the semi-final. It is an important game. We are playing against a good team and must work hard to get a positive result,” said Jamil.  (IANS)

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