It needed ATK a last-gasp goal from Roy Krishna to earn a 2-2 draw against Mumbai City FC to stay at the top of the Indian Super League table at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday. ATK led the first half despite Mumbai being the top side in the opening exchanges but two second-half goals from Prathik Chaudhari and Serge Kevyn put Mumbai upfront before Krishna landed the final punch.
Here are the Sportstar's talking points from the ill-tempered match on Saturday.
Mumbai gets away with foul play
It was a surprise that several of Mumbai players were still on the pitch as the game reached the hour mark. The visitor resorted to several deliberate fouls to break ATK's rhythm. Sauvik Chakrabarti's petulant foul on David Williams in the 8th minute lit the fuse before Rowlin Borges' studs-on challenge led to Edu Garcia's forehead being heavily bandaged.
Referee Rahul Kumar Gupta dished out an yellow card for Borges but remained unmoved despite multiple protests from the ATK players and staff. The referee's indifference led to confrontations aplenty in the second half with Roy Krishna being the chief target of the Mumbai defenders. ATK took the bait as Carl McHugh twisted his ankle going for an unnecessary challenge on Amine Chermiti while Mohammed Anas was shown a yellow card for protest after Serge Kevyn brought him down in the final minutes of the game. The home team had the final laugh when Roy Krishna buried an equaliser in the final seconds of the stoppage time.
Roy Krishna saves the day
Mumbai thought it had won the game after substitute Serge Kevyn finished from point-blank range in the third minute of the stoppage time before Roy Krishna popped at the far post in the dying seconds of the game to earn a 2-2 draw for ATK. The forward was a threat inside the box and was unselfish in laying the ball for his teammates from opportunistic positions.
His partnership with Edu Garcia and David Williams will only keep getting better as the season progresses as the trio were once again mercurial in the build in. The Fiji international was one of the calmer heads on the pitch as he often intervened to diffuse tense situations and finally capped off with a brilliant goal to keep ATK at the top.
Machado the chief creator
Paulo Machado was Mumbai's best player on the pitch with his dribbling, passing and shooting creating multiple problems for the ATK defence. The Portuguese had four shots on the goals while he was unhappy with his teammates' inability to finish off from his killer passes.
He was once again involved in Mumbai's second goal as he sent Bipin Singh galloping to the byline with his throughball who then passed it to Serge Kevyn to score. On a day when his colleagues were busy bringing down opposition players, Machado was the only one who nonchalantly went about doing his job with perfection.
Comments
SHARE