ISL: NEUFC to face Kerala Blasters today in Guwahati

Our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI: After a long gap ISL is back to Guwahati. NorthEast United FC will host Kerala Blasters in their home match at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium today. The match will kick off at 7-30 in the evening.

Mathematically, NorthEast United FC can still make it to the Hero Indian Super League play-offs but will need to do too much in the remaining games.

NorthEast United have 11 points from 13 games and are ninth on the table. They can still make it to the top four, if they win all their remaining five matches. But for a side which has won just two of the games so far, winning five in a row could be a difficult ask. That may still not be enough as they will need teams above them to drop too many points.

Last year’s semifinalists NorthEast have been pegged back by the premature exit of Ghanaian star Asamoah Gyan from the competition due to an injury. The blow was so deadly that since Gyan’s exit, they haven’t scored a single goal in their last four matches.

Talking to the media person at the pre match press conference NorthEast coach Robert Jarni said, “We had a lot of problems with strikers. We did not have a second striker. Maximilian (Barreiro) left. After that Asamoah had to leave due to serious injury and also Pana (Panagiotis Triadis). In those four games in a row, we played really well but couldn’t score.”

Jarni might have been tempted to think what might have been had last year’s top-scorer Bartholomew Ogbeche continued with them. The Nigerian striker helped the Highlanders make it to their first-ever play-offs last season but parted ways in the summer to join Kerala Blasters along with Dutch coach Eelco Schattorie.

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