Mumbai City FC made Atletico de Kolkata taste their first defeat of the 2016 ISL season which put an end to Kolkata’s chariot of victory, at Rabindra Sarobar Stadium in West Bengal, on Tuesday.
Atletico De Kolkata came in with a high morale after their much-appreciated win against Delhi Dynamos while on the other hand, Mumbai City FC was still dressing the wounds they got in a defeat against FC Goa in their previous game.
Atletico de Kolkata was playing its second home game of the season and due to the team performance in the previous games, the crowd was sure of seeing the home team continue its dominance in the league, but, that is not what happened.
Mumbai City players exposed ATK’s defence early in the 8th minute, as Cafu and D.Floran were seen effortlessly playing with the Mumbai’s defence just out of the team’s box and Sony Norde chested a pass and tried to give its team an early lead, but the strike could not be converted into a goal.
Atletico De Kolkata had something to cheer about in the 25th minute when their star striker Javi Lara was awarded a free kick. He was not able to breach Mumbai’s wall in his first attempt and got another opportunity in the rebound, however, the ball was still not in a mood to rest in the goalpost.
Mumbai City got another chance in the 33rd minute when Ralte overlapped Prabir and was able to send the ball in ATK’s box where Robert took possession and passed it towards Norde, whose effort at the goal was somehow defended by Debjit Majumder. (Phew!!). The important thing to notice here was the teamwork that Mumbai City FC players showed which will definitely be an advantage for the team in their future matches.
The game went into halftime and neither team was able to score a goal till then. Atletico de Kolkata players were frustrated after their attacking strategies failed, however, they were as good as Mumbai City FC when it came to defending their positions.
The second half saw a more determined Kolkata side as they were back with their never beaten attacking strategies and this was the phase when Mumbai’s defence was seen struggling against the hosts.
Both the sides attacked the opposition’s goal post multiple times in the second half but were not able to score a goal and claim the lead. It was Javi Lara who heated things up in the middle of the second half when he whisked down the corner, straight into the danger zone to pass the ball to S.Doutie, who in turn headed the ball but it was successfully blocked by Sehnaj Singh.
The first and the last goal of the game came in the 79th minute and that too from a Mumbai City striker when Norde stormed down from the left side, getting past Prabir Das and passed the ball to Floran, who had enough space to shot the ball straight to the goalpost and scored the much-awaited goal, however, Debjit was able to palm the ball but couldn’t stop it.
The goal came as a shock to everyone because it was Atletico de Kolkata who was seen attacking the opposition in the second half while Mumbai City was busy in defending their position.
Desperate to get back in the game, the home side again went into an attacking mode, opening their defence but Mumbai City was content with defending their lead of 1-0.
The game came to an end with Atletico de Kolkata losing their first match of this season and Mumbai City getting to the top of the tally.
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26 October 2016
Rohan Jaitly