Ninth-placed East Bengal welcomes eight-placed Bengaluru FC at the Salt Lake Stadium in the last ISL game of 2022. Both sides are eager to return to winning ways.
The Red and Gold suffered a crushing 3-0 loss to league leaders Mumbai City FC while Bengaluru FC also saw the face of a defeat in the same score line against Hyderabad FC.
EBFC vs BFC Match Details
Date: Friday, 30 December 2022
Time: 19:30 (IST)
Venue: Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata
EBFC vs BFC Match Preview
East Bengal’s search for the first home win of the campaign continues as they went down against Mumbai City FC who showed no mercy at all. Apuia’s double with a Greg Stewart’s strike in between inflicted the seventh defeat on the hosts. The Torch Bearers failed to muster any shot on target from nine attempted and were overrun by the Islanders in every department. It was always going to be tough to face the top two sides in the league this season in back-to-back games but Stephan Constantine’s negative approach did not escape criticism. Despite being the home team in the game, the Kolkata giants shared only 31% of the possession with goalkeeper Kamaljit’s six saves to prevent further embarrassment. East Bengal have now suffered four losses in six matches with the win coming against sides with similar strength as per the standings are concerned. One of them came against Bengaluru FC who visits them on Friday for the reverse meeting this season. In four games at Salt Lake Stadium, the Red and Golds have scored only three goals and conceded 10. They rank the lowest in terms of home form this season. Hence, a win at this venue will be the perfect way to close down 2022 inspiring them for the remainder of the season in the new year.
Like East Bengal, Bengaluru FC are struggling with their roller-coaster form of winning one game and then failing drastically in the other. The 3-0 crushing loss to Hyderabad FC opened up a nine points gap with the playoff places. Another defeat will only pile up the misery. The Blues will also fall down from their eighth place on the table if the outcome of the match at the weekend against the Red and Golds is the same as in the reverse fixture. Bengaluru FC suffered a 1-0 loss on that occasion handing East Bengal’s second win of the season last month. With only one win in four away matches this season, they fear the worst. Simon Grayson though is looking for positives from their erratic run of games till now. With the squad making some star signings in the transfer window, the manager has to bring out results now by providing a winning mentality in them. The defense is also not keeping discipline against the top sides in the league table. The same issues of the previous seasons are being repeated. Bengaluru FC faces the damning reality of missing the playoff spots for the third straight campaign if they are unable to establish proper momentum in their play. That could happen if the Blues manage to prevent East Bengal from changing their dismal home form.
Recent Form
EB: LLWLW
BFC: LWLLW
EBFC vs BFC Predicted Lineups
EB: Kamaljit Singh; Ankit Mukherjee, Ivan Gonzalez, Lalchungnunga, Tuhin Das; VP Suhair, Charalampos Kyriakou, Alex Lima, Mahesh Singh; Cleiton Silva, Semboi Haokip.
BFC: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu; Prabir Das, Sandesh Jhingan, Alan Costa, Namgyal Bhutia; Suresh Singh, Javi Hernandez, Danish Farooq; Udanta Singh, Roy Krishna, Sunil Chettri.
EBFC vs BFC Dream11 Team Prediction
GK: Gurpreet (8.5)
DEF: Prabir (7), Costa (7.5), I Gonzalez (7.5), Bhutia (8.5)
MID: Suhair (8.5), Javi (9), Lima (8.5), Mahesh (9)
FW: C Silva (9), Krishna (9)
Vice-captain: Javi Hernandez
Captain: Cleiton Silva
Stay tuned to Fantasy Football for upcoming matches.
