Mumbai City FC moved to the top of the points table, after Lallianzuala Chhangte saved the day for the Islanders, against Jamshedpur FC. The hosts took the lead in the second half after which Chhangte equalised, to give Mumbai City FC a 1-1 draw.
Mumbai City FC had the better of the early exchanges, as they reacted quicker to the second ball, and were sharper than the Jamshedpur FC side. The hosts were taking their time to get going but had a couple of questions to ask of the visitors. Both teams moved the ball around quite rapidly, with the Islanders finding a couple of openings for Lallianzuala Chhangte, who though had his shots smothered.
Around 20 minutes in, Vikram Partap Singh, who has been in fine form in recent weeks, used the space on the left quite nicely, sucking in two defenders before bursting into the penalty box and setting it up for Bipin, who saw his shot stopped. The Islanders were dominating proceedings, while Jamshedpur sat back and absorbed the pressure, before looking to hit on the counter when possible. However, neither team were able to break the deadlock in the first half hour.
Vikram used his pace well and tried his best to rattle the Jamshedpur defence, who were almost caught napping on a couple of occasions. He forced TP Rehenesh into a brilliant save just before the end of the first half, after which the referee decided it was time for a break with the score at 0-0.
After the break, both teams took to go through the gears and weren’t at their fluent best. However, just on the hour mark, Javier Siverio stabbed it home past Phurba Lachenpa, to give Jamshedpur FC the lead, much against the run of play. The holders of the ISL League Winners’ Shield had their task cut out for the final half hour of the evening.
A few minutes later, Vikram skied it from close range after the Islanders had gotten into the space behind the defence. Since conceding, Mumbai had understandably upped the intensity by a couple of notches. And with 15 minutes left, Vikram, who was on the right, chipped it into Chhangte’s path, who ran past his man and needed just one touch to sweep it home just beyond the reach of the keeper. A moment later, Alberto Noguera found some space on the right and almost curled it in past the keeper. Mumbai City FC were well and truly in ascendency in the final phase of play.
Just before the end, with about 8 minutes of time left, Daniel Chima Chukwu got into a tangle with Noguera, and was sent off for a stamp on the Mumbai midfielder. And on cue, the visitors threw everything at Jamshedpur, as they went on the hunt for a winner.
Eventually, no one found a winner, and both sides had to settle for a point each.
