The football fever is spreading rapidly across India - #HeroISL officially kicked off on 19th November and the 11 competing teams are ready to battle for the top spots and get their hands on the prestigious league title.

With the new season commencing, Jamshedpur FC also kickstart their 2021-22 campaign tonight as they face SC East Bengal for their first fixture of the season. The first game of the season will be an away game, with the fixture being played at Jamshedpur FC’s last season home stadium, Tilak Maidan, Goa.

Previously, the two sides have only faced each other twice in the 2020-21 season as SC East Bengal played their first Hero ISL season last year; they will be part of the league for their second campaign in this season.

The two teams went against each other for the first time at Tilak Maidan, last December, and they will meet again at the same spot tonight. The match ended in a tough goalless draw and both sides were punished with a red card in the duration of the game, hence bringing them down to 10 men. However,  neither side could capitalise on the opposition’s missing player, and walked away with a point each.

The Red and Gold Brigade took charge of the second meeting between the two as the game did not go the way Jamshedpur FC planned it. The visitors took an early lead into the game and kept the Men of Steel on their toes, who were looking to get back into the game with an equaliser, but despite unleashing multiple attacking attempts, Jamshedpur FC could not get back into the game while on the other hand, SC East Bengal slotted another goal, thus giving them a comfortable lead over the Men of Steel. Jamshedpur’s skipper, Peter Hartley managed to score one goal in the dying moments of the match but the host side nearly missed out on the opportunity to close the fixture in a draw and suffered a defeat in the crucial stage of the league. SC East Bengal walked away with a slim one-goal lead.

“When they (SC East Bengal) were a goal up, they tried to come back with more counter-attacks looking to extend their lead. They did very well for themselves, so we have to be respectful of that, but from our perspective, we can certainly play much better than we did tonight. I feel we should have not lost the game as we did enough to take some points from the fixture,” said Head Coach, Owen Coyle in the post-match press conference as he expressed his thoughts over the loss.

Tonight, the two sides step up to the pitch once again for their third meeting, at the Tilak Maidan to kick-off their 2021-22 campaign. Both teams will be looking to give their best performance to grab the winning 3 points and begin their campaign on a positive note, giving them the desired lead on the league table from the very beginning of the season.

Here are the current records of the two teams against each other:

SCEB vs JFC

Matches played - 2

1 Wins 0

1 Draws 1

0 Losses 1

2 Goals 1

Jamshedpur FC will be facing SC East Bengal at the Tilak Maidan Stadium, Goa tonight at 7:30 pm. Tune in to Hotstar and Star Sports Network to catch the live telecast.