Who’ll be the #NewChampion? Hero ISL launches film for race to the 2018-19 ISL Final
The Hero Indian Super League is in its concluding stages and as the semi-finals draw nearer, Star Sports has unveiled a new campaign “Who will be the new champion” – signalling the beginning of the action-packed semi-finals and the birth of a new champion.
The film conceptualised by the in-house creative team at Star Sports, features fan favourites Sunil Chhetri, Ferran Corominas, Bartholomew Ogbeche and Modou Sougou, among others, showcases the rampant sentiment amongst dedicated young fans as their favourite teams contend for supremacy.
Every pass, missed opportunity, formation strategy and foul matters in determining which team will succeed during the semi-finals. Every emotion has been aptly captured in the new TVC.
Continuing the popular home and away format for the semi-finals, the team finishing first on the table will look to book a place in the final with ties on March 7th and 11th, whereas the other semi-final on March 9th and 12th will be a battle between the teams finishing 2nd and 3rd.
The league stages conclude on March 3rd but Bengaluru FC, FC Goa, Mumbai City FC and NorthEast United FC having already sealed their semi-finals berth and with NorthEast United FC securing their first ever semi-finals spot.
The final of Hero Indian Super League season 2018-19 will be held in Mumbai on Sunday, March 17th. This is the second time that the city of Mumbai has been handed the rights to host the Hero ISL final after the inaugural edition in 2014, between Kerala Blasters and Atletico de Kolkata (now ATK) was held at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
With Mumbai City FC in contention for their first Hero ISL title, the Jorge Costa-coached team will look to become the first Hero ISL champions to win on home soil.
FC Goa’s Ferran Corominas leads the race to Golden Boot Award this year with 14 goals, followed closely by Bartholomew Ogbeche from NorthEast United FC and Modou Sougou from Mumbai City FC with 12 goals apiece.
At the other end of the pitch, Bengaluru FC’s Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (90 minutes per goal conceded), Mumbai City FC’s custodian Amrinder Singh (89.56 minutes per goal conceded) and NorthEast United FC’s wall Pawan Kumar (83.92 minutes per goal conceded) lead the Golden Glove Award race.
Like in the previous year, the semi-final stage of Hero Indian Super League 2018-19 season will have the ‘away goal’ rule to decide the winner if the aggregate goal difference between the two teams is zero (0) at the end of normal playing time after the second leg.
As per the away goal rule, the team that scored more away goals will be declared the winner of the tie.
To explain, Team A (home) beats Team B (away) by 2-1 in the first leg and Team B (home) beats Team A (away) 3-2 in the second leg – the goal difference over two legs is zero (aggregate score of 4-4). In this case Team A qualifies for the final as it scored 2 away goals compared to Team B which scored 1 away goal.
Hero Indian Super League season 2018-19 semi-finals and final will be broadcast on the Star Sports network on the following channels Star Sports 1/HD, Star Sports 1 HINDI/HD, Star Sports 3, Star Sports 1 Tamil, Colors Kannada Cinema SD, Star Sports 1 Bangla, Jalsha Movies, Asianet Movies and Northeast Live. Fans can also catch all the Hero ISL action live on Hotstar and Jio TV.