Facing the difficult task of winning their remaining six games to win the title, East Bengal will take on a struggling Sporting Clube de Goa in a must-win match at home in a round 23 I-League exchange here tomorrow.
The Kolkata giants still remain in contention, especially after leader Bengaluru FC's 1-1 draw with Pune FC yesterday.
Due to that stalemate, East Bengal are now 10 points behind Bengaluru with three games in hand.
Having dropped points after their 2-2 draw to Mumbai FC, East Bengal will play their third game in seven days and coach Armando Colaco will be tempted to rotate his team.
The red-and-gold brigade might have the improbable task of winning their remaining games but Colaco remains optimistic.
"The title race is not over yet. It's tough for everybody. We want to take one game at a time so let's try and win this fixture," the five-time Indian league winning coach said.
The sides have met twice this season. East Bengal earned a point with an injury-time equaliser in the I-League encounter in Goa, while Sporting Clube defeated them 2-1 in a Federation Cup group match.
That should give the Goan outfit confidence but they are in a very poor run of form.
The Goans have one point more than East Bengal but have played an extra game and are yet to record an I-League win in 2014 with no wins in their last five fixtures.
Sporting Clube were beaten 1-3 at home by Mohun Bagan last weekend and have lost two of their three away games against city opposition this term.
Due to their recent winless streak, Sporting Clube have very little chance now of challenging for the title and thus coach Oscar Bruzon is eyeing a top-five finish.
"I'm not happy as we are not performing well. We are very lucky not to be in the relegation area around this time. My objective at the start of the season was to be in the top five, so if we do that then it's a successful campaign," the Spaniard said.
East Bengal lead the overall head-to-head record in the combined history of the NFL and I-League with eight wins, four defeats and seven draws but they have not beaten Sporting Clube in any competition for nearly two years.
Bruzon's side will take heart from that statistic and look to dent East Bengal's title hopes.
