A fight between David and Goliath - HAL vs Dempo

News from the camp today:

Dempo - Ranti, "Will score a three tomorrow!"

HAL - Muralidharan, coach, "We will missing two key players tomorrow. Have to play a defensive game. With the missing players, we would've surely played a 4-4-2 formation." 
The mood can set the fate of the match, one can surely guess! The only good news from HAL is the return of dependable Rohit Chand. However, we've wait till January to see the talented Nepalese player in action.   

It might be termed as a fight between David and Goliath – round 12 and top in the points table, Dempo taking on bottom-rung HAL.   

After keeping a clean slate till the first seven rounds, Armando Colaso’s men went down with defeat in the next three rounds, and then finally on a recovery mode by winning against their last match against Sporting Clube de Goa.

Dempo is not taking HAL lightly, “Though, they’ve been on the receiving end, but this is a home match after all – known territory. Hope they won’t choose this one as their comeback match”, grins coach Colaso. 

Coach reckons, “We started quite well, boys went tad complacent, and as a result lost those three matches. The artificial pitch here is relatively new and seems to be settling down, quite an unknown territory for Dempo. It might play a role in tomorrow’s match!” 

“All we need is to collect three points from here”, sums up Armando Colaso.

11 goals and leading the top scorers list, Nigerian Ranty Martins is eager to add to his goal tally, especially when the likes of Tolgay Ozbey, Odafe Okolie, James Moga are closely breathing down his neck. 

Ranti is leading the pack, "will score a three", said confidently!

With 8 eight internationals in their ranks, Dempo looks to be fielding a strong team against an out-of-sorts HAL. 

Adding misery, HAL will be missing the services of two key players owing to injury - defender Femi Joseph and mid-fielder Sudheesh Muttath.

International Debabrata Roy is playing for Dempo, however, there's no Rohit Chand to thwart the attacks from right flank

Match is slated for 3 pm on Wednesday, December 28, 2011.