Atalanta registers a narrow win against Hearts

by Siddharth Yadav October 10, 2015

On 9th October, 2015 Hearts FC met Atalanta in an exciting Division 1 fixture of Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) at St Xaviers Ground, Parel. The latter narrowly escaped with a 1-0 victory from a first half goal from Vijay Shukla who headed Irfan Shaikh’s cross into the net from far post.

Both the teams had their say in the first half, Hearts kept attacking from the start but due to poor finishing the score line was intact until Vijay Shukla’s header from Irfan Shaikh’s cross on 25th minutes.

Pushing most of the players forward, Irfan Shaikh got the ball possession on right flank where he went past Hearts full-back and perfectly crossed it into the box, Vijay who freed himself from his marker took his opportunity and headed it home to break the deadlock.

Atalanta’s back four played high line football where the defenders also had their contribution largely on the attacking aspects. There was a time when the last Atalanta defender was just playing ahead of half line.

Hearts defender, Pravin was their best man in defence, he cleared majority of the ball from the box to keep Atalanta’s strikers far from the goal post.

Atalanta’s Ivor D’Souza and Aditya Kerkar both dictated play for the boys in red and white outfits for majority of the match, they created enough chances for Danish and Vijay Shukla but Hearts defence kept the ball out of danger zone.

The second half was the reminiscent of the first half, both the team equally dominated the match but unlike in first half no goals were scored from either teams.

Atalanta had enough opportunities to double their lead, Ivor D’Souza, Danish, Vijay Shukla, Irfan Shaikh created numerous chances and had handful of attempts on goal but the score stayed still till the final whistle from the Referee, Cajetan Dias.