10-man Mumbai lose to NorthEast

Mumbai City FC coach Sergio Lobera admitted earlier than the beginning of the season that the squad must shortly imbibe his model of attacking soccer, and achieve this whereas additionally successful matches. They did the primary bit alright, however not fairly the opposite.

An equally new-look NorthEast Untied FC (NEUFC), helmed by Gerard Nus, who at 35 is the youngest coach ever in ISL, beat star-studded however 10-man Mumbai City 1-Zero on the Tilak Maidan Stadium in Vasco, Goa, on Saturday.

Two key refereeing calls on both facet of half-time outlined the end result. The first was a straight purple card—the primary of ISL 7—to Mumbai City’s standout participant of the opening half, Ahmed Jahouh. The Moroccan was despatched off by referee R Venkatesh after a useless sort out from behind on the fitting ankle of NEUFC’s Khassa Camara within the 43rd minute.

As Mumbai struggled to deal with the lack of their inventive fulcrum, NEUFC realised they’d an opportunity. Buoyed by the numeric benefit and the very fact their defence was holding agency, NEUFC knew a gap was all they wanted. They bought it 4 minutes into the second half courtesy a handball.

Australian Dylan Fox met a cross from the left with a dipping header aimed in direction of the centre of the field. The ball brushed the left hand of Mumbai City’s Rowllin Borges and Venkatesh awarded the penalty. Ghana’s Kwesi Appiah calmly positioned it to the left of goalkeeper Amrinder Singh to present NEUFC the initiative towards the run of play.

That was sufficient to land a physique blow on Mumbai City, who had been making all of the strikes up till then—they’d greater than double the passes (306 to NEUFC’s 127) and virtually twice the possession (65% to NEUFC’s 35) within the first half. But if Mumbai City, for all the highest names on the roster, couldn’t land a shot on objective it was additionally as a result of underneath stress NEUFC managed to maintain their form.