Mumbai City FC struck thrice in the second half to beat Chennaiyin FC by 3-0 at the Mumbai Football Arena in the Indian Super League on Thursday.
The hosts started brightly with Jorge Pereyra Diaz’s free header in the fourth minute crashing off the crossbar.
The woodwork came to Chennaiyin’s rescue again in the 35th minute when Lallianzuala Chhangte’s penalty kick hit the frame of the goal.
There were also some solid chances for Chennaiyin FC, with Phurba Lachenpa in the Mumbai goal pulling off a stunning save to keep the scores tied.
For all of Mumbai City’s dominance in the first half, they went into halftime goalless.
Chhangte, however, broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute. He collected a rebound shot, brought it into his control and curled home a close-range effort to give the hosts the lead against his former club.
The Islanders put up a complete show thereafter, constantly hovering around the Chennaiyin FC box with Diaz and Jayesh Rane falling short of bagging the second goal of the night by mere inches.
Eventually, Vikram Pratap Singh doubled the score in the 80th minute through a powerfully-struck penalty after Gurkirat Singh was brought down in the box by Chennaiyin skipper Ryan Edwards.
Ten minutes later, Singh dribbled through a maze of four defenders before calmly curling a left-footed effort from the edge of the box past the goalkeeper to score his first ISL goal.
The win put Mumbai City back into third place in the leaderboard, with 22 points from 11 matches.
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