ISL: Mumbai City march on as Bengaluru slump to third straight defeat

While Mumbai City FC have laid down the marker yet again when it comes to the title race, the bigger question at the moment in the season is whether Bengaluru FC are in danger of not qualifying for the play-offs this season.

On Tuesday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, Mumbai beat Bengaluru 3-1 convincingly despite some refereeing decisions going against them and finishing with ten men.

Mumbai were cruising 2-0 at half-time thanks to two early goals from Mourtada Fall (9') and Bipin Singh (15') but Bengaluru made a game out of it in the second half.

Sunil Chhetri scored a contentious penalty in the 79th minute but Mumbai substitute Bartholomew Ogbeche made sure that there were no hiccups as he scored in the 84th minute to seal all three points.

One downside from the performance for Sergio Lobera was the sending-off of Ahmed Jahouh who will miss the crucial game against ATK Mohun Bagan in their next game.

As for Bengaluru, it is the first time in the club's history that they have lost three games in a row in the Indian Super League.

At the start of the game, it looked like Bengaluru had a lot of things going for them. While Sergio Lobera's teams in the past have terrorised opponents in the ISL, Lobera never managed to get the better of Carles Cuadrat.

This season though, Cuadrat and his Bengaluru side look a pale shadow of the title winning side of 2019. While the squad has changed, with Cuadrat at the helm and the likes of Sunil Chhetri, Dimas Delgado and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu forming the spine of the side, such a slump was not expected.

However, after a promising start to the game where Deshorn Brown had a glorious opportunity in the second minute, they just looked second best all night.

Mumbai cut them open in the ninth minute from a corner as Bipin Singh's corner was knocked into the path of Fall by Hernan Santana. Fall virtually had a free-header as he nodded the ball in.

Bengaluru looked sluggish and Mumbai punished them again when their left-back Mandar Rao Dessai was given plenty of space down the flanks and he picked out Bipin in the middle with an inch perfect low cross.

Bipin was not picked up by the Bengaluru centre-backs as he managed to volley the ball past Gurpreet to make it 2-0. In the second half, Bengaluru looked more purposeful and were handed a lifeline when the referee awarded a penalty for what looked like a clean tackle.

Fall managed to win the ball with a sliding tackle inside the box when Cleiton Silva was running down the left channel. The referee decided to award a penalty and Chhetri made no mistake with the finish as he gave his side some hope.

However, Ogbeche made sure there were no wobbles as he headed in a corner largely thanks to a mistake from Gurpreet who spilled what was largely a routine header into his own net.

Lobera finally managed to get the better of Cuadrat, but something that would annoy him in an otherwise perfect night would be Jahouh picking up a second yellow card just minutes after the third goal went in.