ISL 2019-20: Mumbai City seals first-ever win in Kochi - Talking points
Amine Chermiti scored on his debut as The Islanders won their first-ever match at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Kochi on Thursday.
Published : Oct 25, 2019 08:56 IST
Mumbai City FC won its first-ever match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Thursday as the visitor defeated Kerala Blasters 1-0.
Amine Chermitti scored in the final ten minutes of the game to put Jorge Costa's side in the lead before Amrinder Singh pulled off a freak save to block Bartholomew Ogbeche's last-minute effort.
Here are the major talking points:
1) Mumbai wins for the first time in Kochi
With the 1-0 result against Kerala Blasters on Thursday, Mumbai recorded its first-ever win in Kochi, across all seasons.
In the earlier encounters, Mumbai had played out four draws with Kerala and lost one.
2) Amine Chermiti scores on ISL debut
31-year-old Tunisian striker Amine Chermiti scored in the 82nd minute, in what was his first goal of the Indian Super League and Mumbai City.
Roped in from the Saudi Professional League, Chermiti took upon him the goal-scoring responsibility as target man Modou Sougou was not named in the line-up.
3) Kerala Blasters puts up poor defensive display
The backline of Gianni Zuiverloon, Mohamad Rakip, Jairo Rodrigues and Jessel Carneiro had a bad day at the office as the back-four let in the strike from Chermiti in the final minutes of the game.
Jeakson and Jessel failed to clear Souvik Chakrabarti's cross from the left wing and the centre-backs let Chermiti free, six yards out from the goal.
Even after the goal, Kerala's defensive woes continued as Jairo had a brain freeze moment with goalkeeper Bilal Husain Khan when they let go of Serge Kevyn with an open goal to chase. Kevyn, though, failed to capitalise with his shoddy finishing.
4) Sahal Abdul Samad not named in starting line-up again
Midfielder Sahal Abdul Samad was, for the second time in a row, not named in the Kerala line-up by Eelco Schattorie. The local boy came off the bench with 12 minutes remaining on the clock, as he replaced Prasanth Karuthadathkuni.
Sahal was involved in Kerala's most crucial chance of the match when he set up Ogbeche with a cross in the last minute of the match, which was kept out by a wonder save from the clinical Amrinder Singh.
Sahal's late inclusion hurt Kerala on a night when it struggled to create clear-cut chances. The result could have been different had he started.