Mumbai FC played their hearts out and completely dominated play but were unlucky not to finish with a win against Chennai City FC in a 16th round I-League 2016-2017 match at the Cooperage ground, Mumbai on Sunday evening.
Mumbai FC’s dashing striker Thoi Singh tries to work his way past Chennai City FC defenders during their 16th round I-League 2016-2017 .
The Mumbai FC’s coach Oscar Bruzon of Spain was not satisfied with his team. “I am totally disappointed. We completely dominated the match but were let down by poor conversion. We created so many chances but did not score and that cost us a win,” said the Spaniard.
Mumbai FC’s new coach Bruzon chose to start with Brazilian striker Anderson Da Silva and Thoi Singh in the attack. They both replaced Victorino Fernandes and Nikhil Kadam from the last match. The Spanish coach did make any changes to the midfield and defence.
The Mumbai side quickly settled into a rhythm and steadily started made inroads towards the Chennai goal but they seemed to lack the punch. They managed to create quite a number of clear scoring but their strikers Anderson, Thoi and Farukh Chaudhary, were unable to convert and get the vital goals. Lanky medio Karan Sawhney had a couple of attempts but he also did not succeed in finding the mark.
The visiting Chennai outfit hardly showed any intent on going on the offensive and seemed content to sit back and defend. Their goalkeeper Karnajit Singh was kept busy and came under a lot of pressure. But he very well dealt with the situation and had he not made some timely saves they would have gone into the break in arrears.
The Mumbai club continued to hold the upper hand on resumption and in the very first minute substitute Alex Silva with a precise flick put Thoi in the clear but Karanjit rushed out and foiled the attacker. Thoi got back possession but this he was thwarted by defender Abhishek Das in the nick of time. The home team continued to exert pressure on the visitor’s citadel and even earned two free-kicks from ideal positions but the final touch was clearly missing and they finish with another goalless draw on this turf. First deadball specialist Steven Dias saw his swerving shot saved by a diving goalkeeper Karanjit and later Alex shot over.
The Chennai which soaked in plenty of pressure had just one good chance in the second half when their Brazilian stiker Charles DeSouza broke through down the right on entering the area his flick bounced off the near post and hit Yumnam Raju on the face but deflected out and at the fag end of the match Soosai Raj’s snap long ranger was parried away to safety by goalkeeper Laxmikant Kattimani to deny the visiting Chennai side from snatch another late goal as they did in the previous two rounds against East Bengal (2-1) and Minerva Punjab (2-0).
Mumbai will now host Shillong Lajong FC in their penultimate round match on Sunday, April 23.
Results: Mumbai FC 0 drew with Chennai City FC 0.