Odisha FC rode on a dominant first-half display to see off Mumbai City FC 4-2 at the Mumbai Football Arena in Mumbai to pick up their first victory in the 2019-’20 Indian Super League.
Goals from Xisco Hernandez, Aridane Santana and Jerry Mawhminghthanga put the visitors in control at the break before a Mohamed Larbi penalty early in the second half restored some hope for the hosts. Santana added another for the visitors to cap off a fine performance in Mumbai.
Odisha set the tone as early as the second minute when Marcos Tebar played Jerry behind the Mumbai defence, who survived the early scare thanks to makeshift right back Mohammed Rafique who cleared the danger.
However, the visitors were able to break through four minutes later when forward Adriane Santana won the aerial duel with the Mumbai centre-backs to release Xisco in space who cut inside on his favoured left foot to send a curler past Amrinder Singh and put Odisha in front.
Mumbai almost produced an instant response when Rafique’s deep cross found Serge Kevyn at the far post but the Gabonese forwards failed to work the goalkeeper after getting his body shape all wrong.
The visitors nearly doubled their advantage two minutes later when a sweeping counter-attacking move ended up with Santana’s effort taking a deflection and bouncing off the crossbar.
After an eventful opening ten minutes, the game settled down a bit until Odisha FC added their second goal. Shubham Sarangi found Jerry with a through ball behind the Mumbai defence. The young Indian showed great composure in dragging the ball back to Santana, who drilled his effort into the bottom corner to double the visitors’ lead.
Despite the double blow, Mumbai remained competitive in the opponent’s attacking third, keeping them on their toes. The hosts should have halved the deficit when Diego Carlos found Kevyn in space inside the Odisha box, but the forward blazed over to squander the chance.
Odisha punished Mumbai City for failing to claw their way back into the game by adding a third goal in the 40th minute. Nandhakumar Sekar’s curler from the left was parried onto the woodwork by Amrinder only to see Jerry slamming home the rebound.
Odisha went into the break with a comfortable 3-0 lead and without conceding a single shot on their goal. Mumbai coach Jorge Costa brought on Vanpui in place of the erring Subashish Bose before the second half to stabilise their defence. The home side got an early life line five minutes from the restart as the referee penalised Odisha goalkeeper Francisco Dorronsoro for fouling Mumbai’s Kevyn.
Larbi scored from the spot to give Mumbai hope who nearly had another shot at goal five minutes later when Xisco put in a last-ditch challenge to deny Larbi from close range. The Spaniard suffered an injury in process and had to be substituted. Odisha gained control of the proceedings as the half wore on and killed the game as a contest when Santana headed home Jerry’s pin-point cross in the 72nd minute.
Mumbai went into damage limitation mode bringing off their captain Paulo Machado four minutes later. The home side got a consolation in stoppage time when goalkeeper Dorronsoro made a mess of a cross from substitute Bipin Singh. But, Odisha prevented further damage to secure a fine victory.
The win sees Odisha jump to sixth place in the standings as Mumbai remain in fifth spot after falling to their first defeat.
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