ISL 2018 | Indian Super League to kick-ff on September 29 with 2016 final replay
The 2018 edition of the Indian Super League is set to begin on September 29 with 2016 finalists’ ATK and Kerala Blasters FC to play the first game of the tournament. The fixtures were only revealed for the first half of the season featuring 12 round of matches and 59 games in total.
The 2017 edition of the Indian Super League saw I-League champions Bengaluru FC go up against Abhishek Bachan and MS Dhoni co-owned Chennaiyin FC in a thrilling final which the latter won by a score of 3-2 to lift the ISL trophy for the second time. The franchises have all moved to strengthen their squads ahead of this year’s tournament as they aim to challenge for the ultimate prize.
The 2018 season of the ISL will begin on September 29 which will see a replay of the 2016 final between ATK and Kerala Blasters FC at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. The fixtures that were announced were only for the first half of the season and featured 12 rounds of matches and 59 games in total. The fifth edition of the ISL will see three breaks in the competition, two for international matches (October 8 – 16, 2018 and November 12 – 20, 2018), while the other one will start on December 17, 2018, for the Indian national team gear up for the AFC Asian Cup in UAE which will start in January 2019.
Defending champions Chennaiyin FC are slated to face-off against last year’s runners-up, Bengaluru FC, at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on September 30. The Maharashtra derby between Mumbai City FC and Pune City FC will take place on October 19 in Mumbai. While the south India derby between Chennaiyin FC and Kerala Blasters FC will be played on November 29 in Chennai.
However, the North India derby between North East United FC and Delhi Dynamos will take place on October 30. The last fixture to be announced as of now is between Mumbai City and Kerala, who will play each other on December 16 while the fixtures for 2019 are yet to be made public.