Mumbai City FC hammer Delhi Dynamos 4-0 in an ill-tempered game at Mumbai Football Arena; jump to second spot in the ISL points table
It's going to be a happy New Year for Mumbai City FC (MCFC)! Goals from skipper Lucian Goian (12th), Everton Santos (43rd), Thiago Santos (49th) and Balwant Singh (79th) gave the Islanders their second win in a row after the home side thrashed a listless Delhi Dynamos (DD) side 4-0 in an action packed Indian Super League (ISL) encounter at the Mumbai Football Arena in Andheri yesterday.
Mumbai City FC's Sehnaj Singh (right) pushes Delhi Dynamos's Matias Mirabaje (No. 10) during an ISL clash yesterday. Pic/ Suresh Karkera
Mumbai on the rise
With three points in the kitty, Mumbai have surged to the second spot in the table behind Chennaiyin FC, while Delhi have, in all certainty, have owned the bottom place of the league table after losing their sixth match on the trot.
As expected, Mumbai dominated ball possession early on and unleashed waves of attacks from the flanks with Abinash Ruidas giving the visiting team's defenders a harrowing time.
Mumbai had their first eye at goal through a penalty kick when Delhi goalkeeper Arnab Das Sharma brought down Everton down inside the box. Achille Emana had all the right intentions to send the 'keeper the wrong way, but his shot brushed the goal post.
However, Goian was spot on with his reflexes and latched onto the rebound to give his side the early lead.
Delhi were done with another set piece in the 43rd minute. Everton got his name on the scoresheet after Emana delivered a peach of a delivery from the side of the box. The No. 7 timed his jump to perfection and headed it for goal.
Sehnaj gets physical
With nothing going their way and a terrible losing streak not adding to their cause, Delhi players were seeing red at every minute.
Just a couple of minutes before half time, tempers flared from both sides after Mirabaje unleashed a harsh tackle on Sehnaj Singh at the far right flank.
In a display of unsporting spirit, Singh pushed the Uruguayan and was immediately ask to leave the field.
The drama didn't end there. As Singh was making his way down the tunnel, Mirabaje went down and instigated the Indian striker. It wasn't a good sight to see both players holding each other's throats as play was stalled for a couple of minutes to calm down the ruckus. Both players had to pulled away by players. That episode pretty much summed up a chaotic first half.
With both sides reduced to 10 men in the second half, Mumbai still had their names written on it.
Thiago this time got into the action to head a beautiful ball to the back of the post with no opposition player marking him. Mumbai drilled the final nail into the Delhi coffin when Balwant Singh was lucky to have his mistimed shot near the goal mouth head in
after 'keeper Sarma went the other way.
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