Mumbai City FC vs Bengaluru FC: Prediction, preview, team news, and more for the ISL 2022-23 semi-final first leg | OneFootball

In-form Bengaluru FC will travel to the Mumbai Football Arena to lock horns with Shield winners Mumbai City FC in the first leg of the ISL 2022-23 semi-finals on Tuesday, March 7.

The Blues will be looking to leave behind their knockout fixture against Kerala Blasters FC, which was impregnated with drama. After two entire halves of consuming football, there was nothing to separate the two sides on Friday, March 3.

The match then spilled into extra time. However, just seven minutes into the additional phase of play, Sunil Chhetri scored from a quick free-kick to put the hosts ahead at the Sree Kanteerave Stadium. However, pandemonium followed in the coming moments as led by their head coach Ivan Vukomanovic, the Blasters decided to forfeit the fixture.

As a result of the walk-off, the Blues secured a berth in the semi-final and managed to extend their winning run to nine matches. Against the Blasters, Simon Grayson's men looked a little too cautious and will have to loosen their conservative approach against a winning machine like Mumbai City.

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The ISL League Shield winners suffered two consecutive defeats in their closing matches of the regular season. But those defeats came after a stretch of 18 games where they remained unbeaten and managed to secure their first piece of silverware this season.

Des Buckingham's team have had over two weeks of rest since their final game of the league stage, but it remains to be seen if the gap will affect their form.

We’re taking a bit of Bengaluru with us to the City of Dreams!

The stage is set at the Mumbai Football Arena as Simon Grayson’s men take on the Islanders in a#HeroISL semifinal.

: STAR Sports, Hotstar, JioTV: 7:30 pm IST

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Both teams are at their full strength with no injury concerns of any sort, making the encounter all the more enjoyable.

Mumbai City FC vs Bengaluru FC: Predicted Lineups

MCFC: Phurba Lachenpa, Sanjeev Stallin, Mourtada Fall, Mehtab Singh, Vignesh Dakshinamurthy, Apuia, Greg Stewart, Ahmed Jahouh, Jorge Pereyra Diaz, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Bipin Singh.

BFC: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Sandesh Jhingan, Aleksandar Jovanovic, Prabir Das, Rohit Kumar, Suresh Wangjam, Naorem Roshan Singh, Javi Hernandez, Bruno Ramires, Roy Krishna, Sivasakthi Narayanan.

Given the form the two teams have shown for a major chunk of the season, the semi-final will unsurprisingly be a closely-contested affair. Bengaluru FC have the edge when it comes to their recent form, while Mumbai City have been relentless except for the last two matches.