Mumbai City FC halts Chennaiyin winning streak

by Chittu Shetty December 10, 2017

Second half penalty from Achille Emana gives Mumbai city fc their second win at home in as many games as Chennaiyin’s winning streak comes to an end.

Mailson Alves of Chennaiyin FC takes the control of the ball during match 22 of the Hero Indian Super League between Mumbai City FC and Chennaiyin FC held at the Mumbai Football Arena, Mumbai India on the 10th December 2017
Photo by: Vipin Pawar / ISL / SPORTZPICS

An unchanged Mumbai City FC that drew at Kerala, faced an in-form Chennaiyin FC, who made five changes to the team that defeated ATK in the previous game with the most notable being Jeje and Raphael Augusto.

Mumbai started off brightly with Emana driving the attack earning a corner in the very first minute, however the game soon slowed down with both teams playing a physically driven game. The first notable strike came from Mumbai when Gerson Vieira setup Everton Santos only for the Brazilians eader falling straight in to the hands of Karanjit.

The game soon turned sluggish with chances hard to come by, at the half hour mark Chennai almost went ahead after Nigerian Jude Nworuh beat his marker before producing a delicious cross in to the box which Mohammed Rafi almost headed in to the Mumbai net much to the relief of Mumbai fans. Mumbai soon came back with an attack of their own, Emana once again being the creator, setting up Rafa Jorda with a through ball, only for the Spaniard being a little late in releasing his shot.

Just when both teams looked heading in to the break without any more goal, Rafi almost sent Chennaiyin in to the lead with seconds left with a powerful header only for Amrinder to deny the effort keeping the score goalless.

Second half began with Mumbai attacking brightly with some couple of good moves but failed to find that elusive touch inside the box. In the 54^th minute Amrinder pulled off good save off Thoi’s effort from close range inside the box. However as the hour mark neared Mumbai were gifted a golden chance as Balwant Singh was brought down by Dhanpal Ganesh inside the box as Referee pointed at spot-kick. Achille Emana made no mistake converting it sending Karanjit the wrong way with a smartly taken shot to make it 1-0 for the home side.

Chennaiyin looked to comeback with couple of attempts from Rafi but failed to trouble Amrinder at the back. Soon the visitors made changes bringing in Jeje and Raphael Augusto in place of Rafi and Rene Mehelic in search of equalizer.  However it was Mumbai that came close next after Rafa Jorda found himself in a 1-on-1 situation with keeper only to chip it wide off the post. Soon Everton Santos was brought at the edge of box only for Sehnaj to send the ball way over the bar from the resulting free-kick.

Mumbai soon turned the heat with couple of good chances only to be wasted away by poor finishing. Cameroonian Emana drove the Mumbai midfield well as he created numerous chances for the strikers. While Chennaiyin tried their best to draw level with some attempts from distance Mumbai defense held strong as they secured their first clean sheet of season while winning their second game at home.