Mumbai City FC are back to winning ways, after defeating Kerala Blasters by 2-1 in the Indian Super League fixture at GMC Stadium.
Kerala Blasters have once again managed to throw their lead as Mumbai came from behind and ended up winning the match. Adam Le Fondre’s kick from the spot played the decisive role in the match. As for most of the season, Mumbai City are at the top of the table with thirty-three points in fifteen matches and lost only one match in their last five matches.
Kerala Blasters on the other hand, are barely surviving with fifteen points in sixteen matches. They are ninth in the Indian Super League table.
Kerala Blasters FC 1-2 Mumbai City FC: TEAM NEWS
Kerala Blaster’s head coach Kibu Vicuna made no changes in the formation (4-4-2). However, he made four major changes in the backline with Meitei and Kone, in the midfield with Karudathathkuni in place of Samad as well as in the front duo changing Hooper with Samad.
Mumbai City’s head coach Sergio Lobera also kept the same formation (4-2-3-1) and made four changes. Coach decided to give Le Fondre to play from the start, Dakshinamurthy was given a chance ahead of Desai and Borges in place of Jahouh.
Kerala Blasters FC 1-2 Mumbai City FC: MATCH ANALYSIS
The first half was exciting and an affair filled with plenty of action including goal missed chances, and some goalkeeping heroics from both teams. Fernandes came close in the eighth minute but his shot went just over the bar.
Mumbai was missing every chance that was being created, on the other hand, the goalkeeper was absolutely phenomenal declining everyone and stopping everything but a resulting corner. Kerala took the lead. Samad sent in a perfect delivery in the area where Gomez got off his marker and headed in Which gave Kerala the upper hand for the first half.
The half-time talk from Lobera seemed to have worked on his squad as the Islanders got back into the game. Soon after the restart Goddard’s attempted shot takes a deflection off Costa Nhamoinesu and reaches Bipin, who finds the back of the net from a narrow-angle, despite pressure from Sandeep.
Kerala kept pressing but Amrinder stood strong. The keeper continued to save every shot of their opponents as he denied Murray and Rahul once again. Right in the sixty-fifth minute, Nhamoinesu brings down le Fondre inside the box and the referee points to the spot. Mumbai wins a penalty and Le Fondre capitalizes on it by scoring the goal.
Mumbai managed to maintain their one-goal lead till the final whistle and grabbed the three points.
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES:
Amrinder Singh: Mumbai City’s Goalkeeper had the best match above all, despite conceding the first goal Amrinder remains the biggest reason behind Mumbai’s win against Kerala.
Kerala will play against Odisha FC on the eleventh of February at Fatorda Stadium and Mumbai will face Goa FC at GMC Stadium this Monday.
