Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], October 21 : Odisha FC will take on East Bengal FC in the upcoming match of the Indian Super League (ISL) at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
The two teams must be determined to immediately find their footing in this campaign since the Red and Gold Brigade are yet to open their account, whereas the Juggernauts sit at the 10th spot with four points from as many encounters.
However, a duel between these two eastern outfits often produces fireworks, and the fans on the home turf of Odisha FC must be gearing up for an end-to-end battle that pushes each team to put their best efforts forward to walk away with three points, a release said.
They have a lot of confidence to draw from their ongoing seven-game-long unbeaten streak against East Bengal FC, in which they have struck 23 goals. With the Kolkata side giving away two goals per match on average in this campaign, it is to be noted that the Juggernauts have struck at least twice in each of their last seven home games, thus setting an exciting match-up altogether.
The Juggernauts have been exemplary in breaking the opposition's attacks, recording an 88.1% tackle success rate in ISL 2024-25. It demonstrates that East Bengal FC will have to be quick on their feet in building up their attacks as spending too much time on the ball could lead to Odisha FC recovering possession and initiating a counter-attack of their own, the release added.
Meanwhile, East Bengal FC have faced defeats six games in a row now, five of them this season and one to close out the previous campaign. Only NorthEast United FC (10), Hyderabad FC (8) and Jamshedpur FC (7) have lost more games in succession in the ISL than the Red and Gold Brigade. With this being Oscar Bruzon's second game in charge, the coach would want the team to adapt to his plans and pounce upon an Odisha FC unit that is yet to operate at the optimum levels that they often do under Lobera's watch.
The two teams have locked horns eight times against each other in the ISL, with Odisha FC winning six matches and East Bengal FC emerging victorious once. A solitary game has resulted in a draw, with the Juggernauts scoring 24 goals in this clash as compared to the 17 of the Red & Gold Brigade.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Odisha FC head coach Sergio Lobera called upon the entire squad to step up to the tasks whenever required. He stressed the need for a strong bench and insisted that a variety of options allows him to mould his plans differently and have greater chances of winning the game.
"We need to manage the squad well. If you have a very good squad, you have more chances to win the game. If you have good options coming from the bench, we can change the game. We need to manage the timings and substitutions well and this is our job as the coaches to get the best performance possible not only from the players who are starting the match, but also the ones who are coming from the bench," Lobera was quoted in a release from ISL as saying.
East Bengal FC head coach Oscar Bruzon pointed at specific facets of the gameplay in which his team needs to uplift their performance standards, saying that a win is the need of the hour for them to increase the confidence levels in the team.
"We need to understand where to shape, the offensive triggers, to be more intense, to win duels, win second balls, to go big on the defensive transitions and to have fewer spaces in between our lines. We need a positive result to keep everyone in full confidence," Bruzon said, according to the release.
The highly-anticipated move of Dimitrios Diamantakos hasn't reaped rich dividends for East Bengal FC yet, with the Greek striker failing to score in any of his last four ISL appearances. He will hope for a happy turnaround against Odisha FC since he netted in each of his two matches against them last season.
Odisha FC's Hugo Boumous has been a former Golden Ball winner in the ISL and his lasting versatility has been prevalent with him recording goal contributions against 14 different teams in the competition - the joint-most with Sunil Chhetri, Bartholomew Ogbeche, Lallianzuala Chhangte, and Bipin Singh.
The match will kick off at 7:30 PM IST on Tuesday.