ISL 2021-22: Struggling SC East Bengal face resurgent Kerala Blasters

Injury woes

The 100-year old club has also not had the rub of the green with injuries to key players like goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya, Jackichand Singh, and Darren Sidoel not helping their cause.

"We have to improve our level in every practice, and improve our decision-making process every match. We have played 5 matches till now and in some of them, we haven't converted our chances to win when we had the opportunity. We have no new injury worries, It's only Jackichand Singh and Darren Sidoel as of now. Jacki has been improving but is not in a state to complete a whole practice session. Darren Sidoel is out with a hamstring injury and we must be cautious about these injuries," said boss Jose Manuel Diaz.

Kick off time

The match kicks off at 7.30pm IST and will be shown live on Star Sports Network.

After a string of poor results, for SCEB, it is time to prove a point that they truly belong to the top-flight of Indian football as football pundits and critics have been baying for their blood for quite some time.

Buoyant Blasters

Though Blasters are lying in the mid-table, they will come into the game confident of logging their second win of the campaign. The men in yellow have shown spark upfront with Adrian Luna at the heart of their creative force. Luna played a key role in their Blasters' first win of the season by providing assists for both their goals. He created two chances, the joint-most chances created for Kerala Blasters in that match along with Sahal Abdul Samad.

"We are very glad to have Luna in our side. He not only brings the commitment on the field, as a human being, he fits well into the squad and he is being ably supported by the entire team," Blasters coach Ivan Vukomanovic said in awe of Luna.

Fighting spirit

Luna was involved in the right areas of the pitch for Blasters. He had the most touches out of any KBFC player in the attacking third with 19 touches. Blasters also put an end to their 11-match winless run. It was their second-longest winless run in their ISL history.

The Serbian manager also talked about the fighting spirit of his team. "In football, you can never give up. These boys have it in them to prove themselves. I am happy to see that quality in them. There are 'sometimes teams and players', we don't want to be that, we want to be a 'every time team' and show what we have on the field."