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Sony Norde will again be expected to play an instrumental part for Mohun BaganIANS

Defending I-League champions Mohun Bagan take on Sporting Clube de Goa at the Barasat Stadium in West Bengal in a Gameweek 9 fixture.

The hosts will be looking to continue their undefeated run in the league this season, but they will be aware of a certain Sporting Goa striker, who used to wreak havoc when he was a Bagan player -- Odafa Okolie.

The Nigerian goalpoacher has five goals from seven games this season for the Goan side and he is one of the key reasons The Flaming Oranje are not in the bottom half of the table, after their seven games so far. Sporting Clube de Goa are currently fourth in the table, while Mohun Bagan are at the top with four wins and three draws so far.

After getting past Bengaluru FC impressively at the Sree Kanteerava stadium in the Garden City, the defending champions snatched out a draw against Shillong Lajong in their following fixture. 

Sporting Clube de Goa, too, picked up a win at Bengaluru FC this season and thereon they have remained undefeated in their next two matches of the I-League. Their latest fixture resulted in a dramatic 3-2 win against Mumbai FC. Odafa, 30, scored a brace for Sporting Goa in the game.

"Odafa is a stellar figure in Indian football and we expect nothing but a great challenge," Shankarlal Chakraborty, the Mohun Bagan assistant coach was quoted by Goal ahead of the game.

"We have seen that Sporting have gained good momentum of late and we need to be alert for the challenge. Their rise from the bottom to the top four has made them serious competitors. They deserve all the accolades for the wins against Bengaluru FC and Mumbai FC."

Sporting Goa coach Mateus Costa is, however, is not concerned about results from previous seasons, with his focus on the present.

"This match [against Mohun Bagan] is totally different. We cannot just look at the past. Previous results do not count," Costa said. "We take everything game-by-game and we have to give our best. Mohun Bagan are a great side, they have performed well domestically as well as in Asia.

"But we have a fairly balanced squad too and we are here to prove a point."

Where to watch live

Mohun Bagan vs Sporting Clube de Goa is scheduled to kick-off at 4:30 p.m. IST (4 p.m. PST, 11 a.m. GMT) on Feb. 20.

In India (and the rest of the Asian subcontinent), viewers can catch the game on Ten Action. Online streaming will be available on tensports.com.

Viewers in Germany, Austria, Russia, Switzerland and Gerogia can catch up with the game with online streaming will be available on LAOLA1.

Other countries can follow the I-League live scores on the I-League twitter handle.