It had suffered two painful losses against Kerala Blasters last season. But Mumbai City FC gained its revenge with a dominating 2-0 victory over the Blasters in the ISL at the Nehru Stadium here on Friday and jumped from fourth to second in the league table with eight points while Blasters, which suffered its third straight loss after the win in the opener, remained on the ninth rung. The goals came in a 10-minute spell in the first half.
Mumbai appeared confident, focused and dominated the match. It used the flanks well and T.H. Bipin was a constant threat with his runs on the left and steady stream of crosses into the box. The visitor also came up with tricky short passes to break through the Blasters defence.
Mumbai’s opening goal came through a corner in the 21st minute with Mehtab Singh’s left footer from the centre of the box finding its way home through the crowd. Goalkeeper Prabhsukhan Gill desperately put a fist out but the ball was beyond his reach.
Once again, the Blasters defence looked shaky. Argentinian Pereyra Diaz, who had played for the Kochi side last year, exposed it as he made it 2-0 shortly after the half-hour mark. He dodged past defender Mark Leskovic, entered the box and cooly sent the ball home.
In between, K.P. Rahul’s two attempts, from the right and left, were pushed away by the Mumbai custodian Tempa Lachenpa who had an impressive day.
Clearly, the spark was missing in the Blasters team. And Mehtab Singh kept the home forward Diamantakos on a tight leash for a good part of the match. With a two-goal lead in its bag, Mumbai packed its defence in the second half to thwart the desperate Blasters attempts. Diamantakos’ try from the left was nicely blocked while star midfielder Adrian Luna’s shot hit the right post.
The result: Kerala Blasters 0 lost to Mumbai City FC (Mehtab Singh 21, Pereyra Diaz 31).
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