Bengaluru FC's look to consolidate position at top

Despite East Bengal putting a full stop to Bengaluru FC's unbeaten home record, the hosts will look to consolidate their position on the top of the points table when they clash against Salgaocar FC in the I-League here tomorrow.

Bengaluru FC remained at the top of the 13-team table irrespective of their loss to Kingfisher East Bengal 0-2, with their nearest rival Sporting Clube de Goa three points behind them.

Bengaluru's inspirational skipper Sunil Chhetri, who went without scoring a goal in the last encounter, will like to get back to his habit of scoring a brace, which he had in couple of matches.

Bengaluru would like to play better football by launching attacks from both the flanks, which they hardly did in their last match against East Bengal.

The hosts attacked only from the left flank, which the visitors anticipated, and manned their strikers to deny Bengaluru any goal-scoring opportunities.

Bengaluru also will like to convert opportunities into goals, which they failed in the last match.

They will be looking forward to the Aussie to once again cast his magic up front. Rooney, who had scored six goals in the first six matches in Bangalore, would be hoping to delight the home crowd by scoring goals at his favourite ground.

Bengaluru will also be looking forward to the services of John Johnson as the defender. He missed the last game as he was suspended for the match after picking up four yellow cards in the league.

Without Johnson, Bengaluru defence was caught napping on more than one occasion.
On the other hand, Salgaocar will look to register a win and keep alive in the fray at the fourth position in the points table.

Salgaocar started their campaign well, sitting pretty at the top, until three successive defeats and a draw saw them sliding down to the fourth position with 18 points from 13 matches.

Salgaocar have the reputation of playing well against strong opponents, and coach Derrick Pereira is hopeful that his wards will give their best in tomorrow's game.