New Delhi: Delhi Dynamos and Chennaiyin FC will look to deposit something in their points bank on Thursday when the two teams lock horns at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Thursday in Match 6 of the second Indian Super League (ISL) season as both the teams come into this match having lost their respective opening match.
Delhi were defeated by a solid FC Goa side at the Fatorda Stadium as the hosts exploited the shaky defence of Roberto Carlos's men to end up as comfortable 2-0 winners. On the other hand, Chennaiyin lost their opening match of the season 2-3 in a close home encounter with defending champions Atletico de Kolkata.
With the Indian national team playing their FIFA World Cup qualifying game against Turkmenistan on the same day, Delhi will once again be missing their star forward Robin Singh. In his absence, Delhi's player-cum-manager Carlos will once again opt to start up front with Ghanaian youngster Richard Gadze and will use the winger Florent Malouda as a playmaker in the No. 10 position.
Delhi will also be without the services of midfielders Francis Fernandes and Snehraj Singh. So Carlos has less options to tinker with against last year's semi-finalists.
Delhi will be hoping big names like John Arne Riise and Dos Santos step up along with the side's last-season star Hans Mulder. Striker Adil Nabi will also be a threat to the Chennaiyin defence. And while Delhi have the quality, with a cap of four foreign players in the eleven - Carlos will have to chose his options wisely.
Meanwhile, Chennaiyin FC too will miss the services of Jeje Lalpekhkua, who scored the first goal for his side against Kolkata in the opening match of the season. Also midfielder Dhanchandra Singh will not feature in this clash as both are on national duty for the World Cup qualifiers.
However, on paper, Chennai look much more solid but they must improve their defence which gifted two easy goals to Helder Postiga in their first match which they lost by a one-goal margin.
Chennai's Italian coach Marco Materazzi is once again expected to start with Elano Blumer, their marquee player and Fikru Tefera to test Delhi's defensive wall while John Stiven Mendoza may be left on the bench just like the previous game and could be used as a substitute in the second half or they may swap the two strikers with Fikru not being fully fit.
Despite letting in three goals in their previous game, Chennai will continue to be aggressive and push forward without being extra-cautious in their strategy. Last year as well they leaked goals but continued to win games with their philosophy 'you score two - we will score three'.
The two teams have abundance of attacking options between them, so this might be an open game with plenty of goals which should enthrall the Delhi crowd in their first home game. Chennaiyin, though, have slight advantage with better balance.
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