Benguluru FC break Mumbai FC resistance to settle scores

by FC admin April 3, 2016

Mumbai FC’s determination and resistance was broken by Bengaluru FC who carved out a narrow 1-0 win, in a 14th round I-League match at the at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore on Saturday evening.

The win ensured the home side, who had suffered a 0-2 defeat in the away game, settle scores with the Mumbai outfit. Both now have a win each and four draws in six meetings.

Substitute Daniel Lalhlimpuia, who had replaced Kim Song Yong in the 76th minute, tapped in the crucial winning goal in the 82nd minute after a bit of hesitation and confusion between the Mumbai FC goalkeeper Pawan Kumar, who otherwise had a great day in office and the defenders.

Earlier, Pawan Kumar standing under the Mumbai bar had a good first half and on quite a number of occasions left his area to deny the rival attackers from gaining ball possession. In the 44th minute he made a timely charge towards the left side to clear the ball away as Thoi Singh was charging down dangerously after beating the offside trap. Early in the game he did well to hold on to Kim Song Yong header and later fisted away C.K. Vineeth’s attempt from the left.

However, after 15 minutes had passed in the second half the Bengaluru side made some incisive forays towards the Mumbai goal but all their attempt did not find the desired route towards the goal. But the Mumbai side who had withstood the onslaught quite brilliantly finally succumbed to pressure and opened the way for the home side to net the winner.

Following C.K. Veneeth’s cenrtre from the left, the Mumbai FC defence seemed to have lost their focus and did not coordinate with their goalkeeper who had also rushed out and as a result that opened the way for Daniel to sneak through to finish with a simple tap into an open goal.

Thereafter the Mumbai side had a couple of chances to restore parity but Ashutosh Mehta after receiving an ideal opportunity fired wide across

The Mumbai team is now placed at the bottom of the nine-team standing with 12 points from 13 matches, while Bengaluru FC now have 25 points from 12 games and are placed in joint lead with Mohun Bagan who have the same number of points but from a game more.

Mumbai FC will next travel to Kolkatta to take on East Bengal (April 5) before returning back to Mumbai to play the final two matches at home against Shillong Lajong (April 17) and DSK Shivajians (April 24).

Results – Bengaluru FC 1 (Daniel Lalhlimpuia 82nd) beat Mumbai FC 0.