Mumbai City FC thumped Bengaluru FC 3-1 in the Indian Super League to move top of the table at the Fatorda Stadium on Tuesday.
Goals from Mourtada Fall, Bipin Singh and Bartholomew Ogbeche helped extend MCFC's unbeaten streak in its last eight matches.
Here are the talking points from the game.
REPORT |
Bengaluru toothless in attack
With the defeat, Bengaluru lost three successive matches in the ISL for the first time in four seasons. In all three matches, Bengaluru struggled to carve out meaningful goal-scoring chances to threaten the opposition. The Blues haven't scored a goal from open play in 270 minutes and their only goal against Mumbai came courtesy of a dubious refereeing call to award a penalty with 13 minutes left to play.
The combination in attacking play between the forward trio of Sunil Chhetri, Kristian Opseth and Cleiton Silva hasn't come off in matches when the Blues have gone a goal behind. Deshorn Brown had a forgettable outing against Mumbai to add to his disappointing campaign thus far. Brown and Opseth are yet to get off the mark on the goals count and will need to make contributions for Bengaluru to push for a playoff place.
BFC's blueprint scuppered
BFC boss Carles Cuadrat has had a successful approach in playing against Sergio Lobera in the ISL. In five previous meetings against Lobera's FC Goa, Cuadrat had not been beaten. After a first defeat on Tuesday, the Spaniard explained that he hoped to carry out a similar game plan against Lobera's Mumbai as well.
"Our plan was to deny Mumbai the space to Boumous, Adam le Fondre and Jahouh, who have the creativity. But they were very good to break the space," conceded Cuadrat.
But it was undone as early as the eighth minute when Fall rose over Juanan to head home a corner kick to put Mumbai ahead. Cuadrat also spoke about how his team missed the suspended Erik Paartalu, who usually marks Fall from set pieces. This was the first time, Cuadrat's Bengaluru fell behind to a Lobera's side. Then came the second goal in only the 15th minute, when Mumbai opened up space down the left side for Mandar Rao Dessai to measure in a cross for Bipin to knock the ball into the net.
From there on, Bengaluru had to scratch its plan, play the catch-up game only to not succeed.
The good and bad of Jahouh
It could be argued that Ahmed Jahouh is the best midfielder in the league. Playing in the role of a deep-lying playmaker role against Bengaluru, Jahouh had 90 touches (1st), attempted 60 passes (3rd) and created a chance. He averages 90 touches per game -- most in the league -- from eight appearances, which indicates his influence in the side. Opponents find it hard to dispossess the ball off him and has the passing range to keep Mumbai's attack ticking over.
In his 86 minutes of action, he also made 10 fouls -- most for players on both sides. Out of the 10 tackles he made, only two were successful and the Moroccan player was walking on a tight rope after his first yellow card in the 40th minute of the game. Despite the caution, he proceeded to give away clumsy fouls , which ultimately resulted in his sending off for a kick on Dimas Delgado. This was Jahouh's second red card of the season, the only player to be dismissed twice.
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