Arch-rivals seek to redeem lost pride

However, Salgaocar, who remained unbeaten till the eighth round, suffered back to back defeats at the hands of Mohun Bagan and FC Kochin and that put them out of the reckoning.

They now have 36 points from 20 matches and need three points from two matches to assure themselves of the second spot as they are one point ahead of Churchill Bros, 35 points from as many matches.

Salgaocar strikers Alvito D’Cunha and Joao Dos Santos, who displayed good marksmanship in the earlier this season, looked out of colour so far.

Churchill Brothers attempt to win the title this year after they missed it narrowly to JCT in the inaugural year got to a bright start as they led the table in the first phase with Bagan in the second spot.

But after suffering their first home defeat against Mahindras and later to lowly-placed ITI, Churchill gave Bagan an unbeatable lead.

Salgaocar defender Franky Baretto, who received two bookings, will not play on Wednesday along with Covan Lawrence (ankle injury) and S Venkatesh (hamstring). Their place will be taken by Augustine Rodrigues, Rocky Pereira and Dharamjit Singh.

Churchill will miss their medio Mykola Shevchenko on account of two yellow cards and Anthony Mathews, who is injured, also seems to be a doubtful starter.

Salgaocar need to raise their game and play cohesively both in the midfield as well in the upfront to go past Churchill whom they defeated 1-0 in the first phase.

Churchill’s medio Rocky Barreto, who has shown consistency throughout, will need good support from Mario Soares and Somatai Saiza.

Andriy Malchevsky and Francis Silveira, who heads the goalscorers’ list along with Igor Skhvirin of Bagan, will be looking for the necessary support from the medios.