Pune FC slam ten past hapless Mumbai FC in a carnage at Cooperage

by Kaushal Shukla November 16, 2015

Pune FC gave Mumbai FC a complete footballing lesson as the visitors were rampant and relentless in a 10-0 thumping of Mumbai FC in the Maharashtra Qualifying Zone game of the U-18 I-League held at Cooperage on Sunday evening. Both the Pune FC forwards had a day to remember as Aashique Kurniyan scored four goals while his partner Lawmpuia netted three on a fantastic day for Pune FC.

Quite unbelievably considering the turn of events at the end of the day, Mumbai FC didn’t start the game too badly and managed to match the vigour and intensity of Pune FC in the first ten minutes, but always flirted with danger by playing a high line against the pacey Pune FC forwards.

Mumbai FC’s date with the danger soon turned into terror as forward Aashique Kurniyan broke the offside trap to get on the end of a nicely weighted through ball from midfield and coolly slot past the Mumbai FC goalkeeper in the 14th minute to put the visitors in front. The home side did show some fight after going down and stepped up the intensity in midfield, but had little going their way against an astute Pune FC defence.

The hosts failed to maintain the high intensity as Pune FC’s Aashique Kurniyan ripped Mumbai FC’s defence apart in the 33rd minute when he eased past the defence line to fire a shot on goal which was well saved by the Mumbai FC goalkeeper, but the rebound fell kindly to him as Kurniyan made no mistake in doubling his and his team’s tally.

Pune were in again just a minute later when another through ball saw Lalwmpuia get on his bike and shrug off what looked like an unfair challenge on his by the Mumbai FC defender to finish immaculately. Mumbai FC avoided further damage in the first half as Pune FC went into the break with a healthy and well deserved 3-0 lead.

It was one-way traffic again in the second half as Mumbai FC completely capitulated under the relentless pressure from Pune FC as Chester Paul added a fourth goal just three minutes into the second half, before Sahil Panwar made it 5-0 in the 52nd minute.

Three minutes later, striker Aashique Kurniyan completed his hat-trick with yet another well taken goal as Pune FC doubled their tally at half time within just ten minutes of the second half. in the 66th minute, Kurniyan’s striking partner Lalwmpuia got in on the act once again with yet another good finish to put Pune FC in seventh heaven.

Surprisingly Mumbai FC refused to learn from their mistakes as they continued to hold a high line against the marauding front four of Pune FC. Substitute Chester Paul was running riot on the left hand side since coming on and got his second of the game in the 68th minute to make it 8-0 in Pune FC’s favour. as he fired home a truly sublime free kick into the top corner.

Just when one thought Pune FC were done for the day, their striking pair of Kurniyan and Lawmpuia continued to further terrorize the Mumbai FC defence. Kurniyan scored his fourth goal of the evening in the 79th minute to cap off a fantastic game for him before Mumbai FC’s troubled defence suffered a blow with their best defender on the day, Martin Assisi limped out. Assisi was the pick of the Mumbai FC defenders and made some top last ditch tackles to prevent Pune FC from making it worse.

However Pune FC were to get into double figures as forward Lalwmpuia completed his hat-trick with a 88th minute strike which made it 10-0 in Pune FC’s favour.

It was Mumbai FC’s second heavy loss in the competition after falling to a 12-0 defeat at the hands of DSK Shivajians in the first round of matches.