At the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar on Thursday, third-placed ATK Mohun Bagan will take on fifth-placed Odisha FC, who are only one point below them in the standings. Table-toppers Hyderabad FC and second-placed Mumbai City FC will play away games against Bengaluru FC and East Bengal FC, respectively.
Substitute Brison Fernandes broke the deadlock with his first touch in the 74th minute before Noah Sadaoui and Alvaro Vazquez wrapped up the three points for the Gaurs.
FC Goa will take much solace from their performances in their opening two home games as they strode out to arguably two of their best performances so far this season. And the FC Goa faithful will be hopeful that they are able to recreate the magic. Odisha, on the other hand, will draw strength from the recent comeback wins they registered against Jamshedpur FC and East Bengal FC.
The narrow win kept Odisha FC's 100 per cent record at home intact and helped them leapfrog Hyderabad FC and move into second place, three points behind leaders Mumbai City FC with a game in hand. NorthEast United FC remained at the foot of the table, still waiting to get off the mark.
Odisha FC has been irrepressible in the last two games emerging as the comeback masters. The Juggernauts left it late against Chennaiyin FC as they snatched all three points with a 95th-minute winner. In the game before that, they came from two goals down to win 4-2 against East Bengal FC. Now, Josep Gombau's men aim to win three games on the trot for the first time this season
With a penalty from Diego Mauricio and an own goal from Vafa Hakhamaneshi, the Kalinga Warriors were up 2-0. However, the visitors fought back when Abdenasser El Khayati scored a brace in the game.
Nandhakumar Sekar goal clinched a 3-2 win for the Juggernauts after Chennaiyin FC had scored the equaliser in the 94th minute via an Abdenasser El Khayati penalty.
East Bengal took a 2-0 lead in the first half thanks to goals from Thongkhosiem Haokip and Naorem Mahesh Singh, but half-time substitute Pedro Martin equalized three minutes later. Later on, Jerry Mawihmingthanga and Nandhakumar Sekar sealed the three points.