Kolkata : Match day 7 of 131st Durand Cup will witness two new teams. The champions of Indian Super League 2021 Hyderabad FC will play with TRAU FC while Kolkata Giants Emami East Bengal will play their opener against Indian Navy.
Hyderabad FC vs TRAU FC
Hyderabad FC look strong with it’s six foreign recruits, which include Brazilian Joao Victor, Australian Joel Chianese and the Nigerian Bart Ogbeche.
Spanish coach Manolo Marquez has rganized a strong defence with India regulars Sana Singh and Akash Mishram, goalie Kattimani of Hyderabad bar brought off the most number of saves among keepers last season.
TRAU coach Nandakumar Singh have his hands with players like Khanngam Horam Singh who had a good game upfront. However heneedsd more from forwards like Johnson Singh to support their captain Komron Tursunov.
Emami East Bengal vs Indian Navy
Indian Navy coach Abhilash Nair will do well to instil the believe back in team. Emami East Bengal are a brand new combination surely looking to settle down. However, this could also be their best chance to spring a surprise.
Coach Nair had this to say before the game, “ We do not know much about our opponents so there is a bit of the unknown factor but Stephen Constantine is their coach and he has very good experience of Indian football. Therefore we expect to come up against a strong team and they will also have their local fans for support. We are just concentrating on ensuring that we do not repeat the mistakes we made in the last game which led to us conceding some unnecessary goals. We will surely play to win.”
Emami East Bengal coach Stephen Constantine does know how to get the best out of Indian footballers and it remains to be seen if he still has that touch. True to his committed nature, he was at the ground, watching the whole of the Mumbai City-Navy game and would have made notes.
The Indiana of the squad like V.P. Suhair, a mercurial forward, Aniket Jadhav and Sauvik Chakrabarti from Hyderabad have a key role to play.
With foreigners like Cyprus national team defender Charalambos Kyriakou and Spaniard Ivan Gonzales, who won the Cup with FC Goa in the previous edition, will surely lend solidity to the back line.
The three Brazilian recruits up front in Cleiton Silva, from Bengaluru FC, Alex Lima formerly with Jamshedpur FC and Eliandro, a prolific scorer in the Thailand league over the last two years. If Constantine can get all of this to work as a unit, Indian Navy could have a tough time.
