- Mumbai City FC – 0
- Punjab FC – 3 (Pulga Vidal 45+1, Majcen 54’(p), Bakenga 84’)
Mumbai, November 26: Punjab FC silenced Mumbai City FC as they thumped the reigning Indian Super League winners 3-0 in the Indian Super League encounter which was played here at the Mumbai Football Arena. Ezequiel Vidal, Luka Majcen and Mushaga Bakenga scored for the winners. With this win, the Shers moved into third in the table with 15 points while Mumbai remained in 10th position with 10 points.
Ricky Shabong made his first start of the season, replacing the injured Vinit Rai and took the position in midfield along with Nikhil Prabhu and Filip Mrzljak. Leon Augustine continued to play as a makeshift right back as Head Coach Panagiotis Dilmperis continued to make very less changes to the starting lineup. Petr Kratky named a start studded lineup with Lallianzuala Chhangte, Nikolaos Karelis and Bipin Singh leading the attack line.
Punjab FC forced Mumbai City to make errors in midfield, with their high pressing game, but the Shers were unable to take advantage of the situation, with the final output missing. Luka Majcen, Filip Mrzljak and Ricky Shabong saw their efforts go wide while Pulga Vidal’s attempt was blocked by the Mumbai defence. Nihal Sudeesh also had a promising chance inside the danger area, but the winger’s attempted cross was blocked by Valpuia. On the other end, Mumbai City had the two best chances of the half but Karelis and Chhangte could not put the finishing touches to the service provided by Bipin Singh from the left wing. Ravi Kumar then made a fine diving save to his right to deny Jayesh Rane’s effort from outside the box.
The high pressing of the Shers eventually led to them taking the lead as Pulga Vidal stole the ball from substitute Jeremy Manzorro. The Argentinian then received the ball back from Majcen and curled the ball into the far corner of the goal, past Phurba Lachenpa to give his side the lead in injury time of the first half.
Mumbai looked to assert themselves from the restart, but Punjab continued to stick to their plan, giving no space for Islanders’ midfield to create any openings. Filip Mrzljak was fouled inside the box by half time substitute Franklin Nazareth after a nice interchange play with Pulga Vidal and Nihal. The penalty was calmly converted by Captain Luka Majcen sending the goalkeeper in the wrong way.
Mumbai increased the intensity chasing the two goal deficit, brought in Brandon Fernandes and Noufal P.N in place of Chhangte and Bipin. Midfielder Jon Toral’s left footed attempt hit the post and went out adding to the home side’s frustrations. Mumbai controlled possession for long periods of the game, restricting Punjab to counter attacks, but Punjab defence remained solid especially the player of the match Abhishek Singh who was brilliant throughout the match.
The Shers applied the final touches in the match as they scored the third goal to put the game beyond the hosts. Substitute Ninthoi found Mushaga Bakenga inside the box with a neat pass. The Norwegian took a touch and found the bottom corner with a fine finish for his first goal of the season. The Shers saw off the rest of the match without much trouble as they secured their fifth win of the season.
Punjab FC will face Mohammedan SC in their next fixture on December 6th at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.
