Mumbai City FC will play their fifth AFC Champions League group match as they take on Iran’s Nassaji Mazandaran in Tehran’s Azadi stadium on Tuesday.

The Islanders have lost all their games in the competition this season and are out of contention for a place in the next round. However, they will draw inspiration from their spirited performance against Al-Hilal in the last match and pick up their first points of the campaign.

Mumbai City FC would also take out positives from their previous match against the same opposition that had ended in a 0-2 defeat at Pune’s Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex where they had created a host of chances to win the match, only for them to not take any.

This will also be their first match since the departure of head coach Des Buckingham who joined Oxford United. Coach Anthony Fernandes will take charge of the match and will hope to guide his team to a famous win on the road.

“We are going to try to go for a win and I think, even Nassaji Mazandaran would be aiming for the three points again. It’s going to be a very competitive match and we look forward to getting the three points and playing this match to our strengths,” coach Fernandes said ahead of the match.

The Islanders have travelled to Iran without any foreign players for this match which will mean their Indian youngsters will get an opportunity to showcase their talent.

Captain Rahul Bheke will be leading the troops out on the field and is aware of the challenges facing the players.

“Since we played against Nassaji in our previous meeting at home, we know the quality they bring to the table. We have an idea of the way they played against us in our previous game and as a team, we are well prepared and are looking forward to this challenge,” Bheke said.

Nassaji Mazandaran are also out of contention and will play for pride in this game.

The match will kick off at 9:30 PM IST and will be shown Live on Sports18 and streamed Live on the FanCode app.

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Mumbai City FC2023-2024 Rahul Bheke