Champs Aizawl fight to avoid relegation

AIZAWL: Aizawl FC will host Indian Arrows on Friday, which is going to be their newly-appointed coach Santosh Kashyap’s first home match in this I-league season. The veteran coach, who has taken over the reins after Aizawl parted way with Paulo Menezes, is yet to garner a win with the team. Arrows, who are lying at the bottom of the table after 16 games, desperately need three points to climb up the ladder. On the other hand, Aizawl are without a win in the last eight games and have garner only five points from their last eight contests.

Speaking on the eve of the match, Arrows coach Luis Norton said, “I am proud of the boys. We shouldn’t forget that this is not a senior team and we want to learn and progress in football. What we have achieved till now is good,” Matos said.

Arrow’s Edmund Lalrindika said that crowd support could give Aizawl the edge. But crowd support apart, Aizawl will need more than a miracle to retain the title and coach Kashyap admitted that, “We need to think one game at a time. We are in the relegation battle but we will play for three points tomorrow.”

FIXTURES REVISED

KOLKATA: NEROCA FC’S request to move their last match of the I-league to March 8, the last day of the competition, has been accepted by the league. As a consequence, in the revised fixtures, the club from Imphal will now play East Bengal away on March 8 instead of Feb 27.

On the same day, Minerva will host Churchill in Panchkula. E. Bengal’s away match against Shillong Lajong, originally scheduled on March 4 and as the Kolkata club’s last game, will be played on March 5.

Mohun Bagan too, it was learnt, have asked for their last match, against Gokulam to be rescheduled to March 8 instead of March 6. A decision would be taken based on their next two games to see if they are still in contention for the title.