After their loss against Mumbai City FC on Friday, NorthEast United will look to get back to winning ways against FC Pune City when the two teams clash at the Balewadi Stadium on Wednesday.

Coach Nelo Vingada is well aware of his team's hectic schedule, this being their fourth game in 12 days, but the 63-year old Portuguese veteran prefers to stick to his starting members, "I am not that kind of coach, even though this league is special and is such that you need to change players. For this game we may have one to two changes, maximum. I am not thinking about my game on Saturday [vs Delhi Dynamos FC]. Players need to be playing too. So I won’t change much."

Against Mumbai, marquee player Didier Zokora played in the centre of defence and looked tidy but was guilty of the pass to Reagan Singh which led to the latter conceding a penalty. Reagan may make way for specialist right-back Nirmal Chhetri or left-back Shouvik Ghosh, in which case Robin Gurung would slot in at the right side of defence.

Halicharan Narzary, who seems to have made an early impact in this year's tournament should return to the team in place of Sehnaj Singh who looked jaded in the last match. NorthEast have the quality in attack, but they and in particular, Katsumi Yusa, were guilty of squandering chances against Mumbai and must be more clinical in the next game.

Antonio Habas, who will serve the third of his four-match touchline suspension, is likely to stick with his 3-5-2 formation that served him well against FC Goa.

In Pune's last match against Goa, Gouramangi Singh made a horrendous error which led to Rafael Coelho slotting an easy chance past Apoula Edel to level the score up for the Gaurs. Pune would go on to win the match 2-1 but their defence looks a bit suspect at the moment.

Raju Yumnam, who struggled against Romeo Fernandes, may make way for Narayan Das with the rest of the squad remaining unchanged.

Marquee player Mohammed Sissoko played well in a deep-lying role and will be given the job of screening Pune's defence against a strong NorthEast attack.

Match Facts

Venue: The Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium, Pune (popularly known as the Balewadi Stadium)

Capacity: 11,900

Time: 7 pm IST

Last meeting: NorthEast United 3 - 2 FC Pune City, 2nd December, 2015, at the Indira Gandhi Stadium, Guwahati

Head-to-head: Matches: 4, NorthEast wins: 1, Pune wins: 2, Draws: 1

Key Battles

Nico Velez vs Rahul Bheke: With every passing game, Velez's reputation as NorthEast's main man cements itself. The Argentine was NorthEast's top scorer last season and should have had at least one assist last match.

Bheke, the 25-year old right-back from Maharashtra has struggled to settle in at Pune and had a poor game last time around despite his side's victory. Will have his hands full with Velez breathing down his neck. The left-winger's trickery may unsettle Bheke.

Anibal Zurdo vs Gustavo Lazzaretti: Mexican Zurdo had a decent outing on his first start for the Stallions. Will lead Pune's attack as the frontman once again.

Lazzaretti is the mainstay and will likely be given the task of shackling Zurdo while Zokora engages Jesus Tato. Dealt well with Diego Forlan the last time around.

Squads

FC Pune City: Edel Bete; Gouramangi Singh, Dharmaraj Ravanan, Eduardo Ferreira; Narayan Das, Rahul Bheke, Arata Izumi, Jonatan Lucca; Momar Ndoye, Anibal Zurdo Rodriguez, Jesus Rodriguez Tato

NorthEast United FC: Subrata Paul; Nirmal Chettri, Robin Gurung, Gustavo Lazzaretti, Didier Zokora; Halicharan Narzary, Rowllin Borges, Romaric, Katsumi Yusa, Nicolas Velez; Emiliano Alfaro