Iain Hume singed the home sentiments with two goals as Atletico de Kolkata prevailed over visitor Mumbai City FC 3-2 in the first leg of the ISL semifinal, which was played here at the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium on Saturday. The battle now moves to the Mumbai Football Arena, Andheri where the two meet next on Tuesday to finalise the title berth.
The match was decided in a super first half, which produced all the five goals. Larindika Ralte opened the account for the host early before the visitor scored twice in quick succession through Leo Costa and Gerson Viera to upturn the lead. Hume got into action hereafter first scoring the equaliser before fetching the winner off a penalty in the added-on time of the opening session. While the host quelled the famed attack of the visitor to perfect a spectacular turnaround, Mumbai City FC suffered a double jeopardy losing the match as well as its talismanic forward, Diego Forlan, who was marched off with a red card late in the second half.
Sameehg Doutie’s return to the starting line-up did the trick for Atletico de Kolkata, which got into the aggressor’s role right from the kick-off. Doutie, whose control and skilfulness along the flank has been an established fact by now, became the livewire in the host’s attack once again. Leaning on the on the speed and guile of the South African, ATK found the corridor right in the second minute. The Mumbai defence managed to clear the offensive but the resultant corner brought the break that the host was looking for.
The corner was cleared by the Mumbai defence but the ball hovered around its box before reaching Borja Fernandes. The Spanish play-maker set a low floater in the box which was back-headed by Ralte. The ball looped up to the far corner of the goal catching the MCFC goalkeeper Amrinder Singh off-guard. The latter tried to retrieve the situation running back but the ball went home touching his hand.
As Forlan stepped up to redeem the situation, Mumbai regrouped quickly and found the leveller in the 10th minute. Costa got the ball in the right spot off Sunil Chetri who leapt up to guide Forlan’s freekick to the feet of the unmarked Brazilian. The Uruguayan World Cupper did the trick for the visitor once again when his second free-kick was nodded home by Gerson Viera, in the 19th minute.
Needing something superlative to upset the rhythm of the visitor, the host found the redeemer in Hume, who finished with a booming right-footer after Doutie set him up latching on to a cross from Ralte, in the 39th minute. The host kept pressing for the lead with Doutie doing untiring sorties into the opposition defence. The Mumbai City left-back Lalhmangaihsanga committed the cardinal error of blocking the ATK striker Helder Postiga inside own box giving referee Dilan Pereira no option but to point at the spot. Hume made no mistake with the penalty to ensure the champion of the inaugural season retain the advantage going into the second leg.
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