Mumbai City FC claimed its maiden win of the Indian Super League (ISL) season with a 2-1 victory over rivals FC Goa here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Saturday.
The home side was clinically picked off by Petr Kratky’s Islanders, who moved four places in seventh above Goa. Yoell van Nieff, who set up the opening goal, created and scored a second out of nothing to put his side in a position of control in the 40th minute.
Armando Sadiku halved the deficit early in the second half to lift the hopes of a thrilling comeback, but Mumbai City withstood the onslaught to come out with the three points.
Mumbai City named an unchanged XI from the goalless draw against Bengaluru FC, while an illness forced Goa to leave Dejan Drazic on the bench.
There wasn’t much space on offer in the early exchanges for either side before Mumbai City’s prowess in set-pieces came to the fore. With the box packed with several Goan and Mumbai City players in front of the six-yard box, Van Nieff whipped in a dangerous ball into the area. Nikolaos Karelis beat his marker and put in a diving header to thump the ball against the net.
After the goal, Goa built some good momentum in attack, especially down the right side with Rowllin Borges finding Udanta Singh’s overlapping runs. Armando Sadiku had the best chance to equalise but was initially thwarted by Phurba Lachenpa but the Albanian striker inexplicably blasted the rebound over the bar from close range.
Sadiku turned provider for Herrera with a deftly weighted reverse ball but Hmingthanmawia, who had an excellent game, stuck out a foot to nick the ball away from the Spaniard. A minute later, Mumbai City extended its lead.
Van Nieff robbed the ball off Carl McHugh, before running at goal and firing a speculative effort at goal. Luckily for him, Laxmikant Kattimani couldn’t get a strong enough hand to stop the ball from looping into the net. The individual errors from McHugh and Kattimani further highlighted Goa’s malaise this season.
This was the fourth game where it had conceded two goals or more.
Goa came out strongly in the second half with its attack once again favouring the right side. Boris Singh’s cross was headed against the post by Brison Fernandes and the ball fell to Hmingthanmawia, whose attempted clearance caught Sadiku, who stuck out a boot, forcing the referee to award a penalty.
Sadiku blasted his penalty to halve the deficit and lift the local crowd, who found their voice once again. The volume was cranked up another notch after a wave of attacks from the home side. Herrera’s long-range effort whizzed just over the bar and a defensive error inside the box needed a last-ditch header from Tiri to stop the Spaniard from scoring.
Kratky cleverly made two separate changes to halt Goa’s charge and Lachenpa went down with cramps forcing more stoppages in play. Manolo Marquez made attacking changes by bringing on Iker Guarrotxena and Sahil Tavora, but the home side never found the same verve in attack as it did during the opening quarter of the half.
It was Mumbai City which came close to scoring through P.N. Noufal’s shot inside the box and Mehtab Singh’s header from a corner, but Jay Gupta and Kattimani made crucial blocks.
Marquez rolled the last dice with Drazic with six minutes to go, but even the Serbian couldn’t help salvage a point.
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