It is time for some "fatafati football" in the City of Joy, as fans gear up for the clash of titans in the Indian Super League (ISL) 2015. Atletico de Kolkata will lock horns with FC Goa at the Vivekananda Yuvabharati Krirangan (Saltlake Stadium) on Sunday.
They have been arch-rivals since the ISL's inception, and none of their games yielded a positive result in the 90 minutes of the play apart from the semi final of ISL 2014, in which Atletico de Kolkata edged past FC Goa in penalty shootout.
The defending champions of the ISL 2014 lost a bit of momentum midway through the league, but have quickly resurrected their campaign and are back in form. Atletico de Kolkata registered a fantastic victory over Chennaiyin FC in the last game at the former's home ground and are looking upbeat at the moment.
"It is a more important game for us, and I think the most difficult till now. Each game is different. Goa are in a great position, but ATK are prepared to win," Atletico de Kolkata head coach Antonio Lopez Habas told the reporters on Saturday.
Meanwhile, FC Goa have been in sublime form as well. So far, Zico's men have been the best in this season of the ISL. They handed a humiliating drubbing to Mumbai City FC (7-0) in their last match, and now have come to Kolkata, where thousands of football crazy fans will turn up to witness this crunch ISL encounter.
However, Zico is not too happy about the fact that his players were not allowed to practise at the Salt Lake Stadium and get the feel of the turf ahead of the game. The players will be walking out in the middle on Sunday without any experience of the new natural turf. Then again, Zico feels they are in Kolkata to look for a positive result, and also believes they can achieve it against the defending champions in thier own backyard.
"For us, we always play to win. There is no guarantee in football even if we score seven goals in a game. We came here to search for a win and there is no relaxing. The position that we are (at the moment), we have our feet on the ground. If we don't win the games that are remaining, we will not be in the top four," Zico told reporters at a press conference.
Where to watch live:
Atletico de Kolkata vs FC Goa is scheduled for a 7 pm IST (2:30 pm BST, 9:30 am ET) start. The channels in India that will show this ISL 2015 Match 15 live are Star Sports 2,Star Sports HD2, Star Sports 3, Star Sports HD3, Star Utsav, Star Gold (both Hindi),Asianet Movies (Malayalam), Jaya Max (Tamil), Suvarna TV (Kannada) and Jalsha Movies (Bengali). The ISL 2015 match can also be watched via live streaming online (free) in India, and over a 100 countries, on Hotstar and Starsports.com.
The viewers in the UK, South East Asia, including Singapore and Hong Kong, can watch Atletico de Kolkata vs FC Goa live on Star Gold, while the audience in Canada can watch the Indian Super League 2015 game live on CBN and ATN.
Eurosport will show the Indian Super League match live in Europe and South East Asia, while the Atletico de Kolkata vs FC Goa match can also be live streamed on Eurosport Player. The viewers in Sub Saharan Africa can watch the ISL 2015 game live on Zuku andSuperSport.
Middle East and North Africa viewers will be able to catch the Atletico de Kolkata vs FC Goa action live on OSN, with the live streaming option on OSN Play.
The viewers in the US and Australia can watch the ISL 2015 match between Kolkata and Goa live on Fox Sports, while the online live stream option is on Foxsoccer2go and Foxtel.
