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Atletico de Kolkata hosted Mumbai City FC at the Salt Lake Stadium in their last and final group stage match of the second season of the Indian Super League. Both sides had nothing to play for as Atletico de Kolkata had already qualified for the playoffs while Mumbai City FC were already out of the tournament.
Going into the game, Atletico were sitting on top of the table with 23 points from 13 games, while Mumbai were at the bottom of the table with just 13 points from 13 games.
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The defending champions were in brilliant form having won 4 of their last 5 games, while the visitors hadn’t won in 7 games and also hadn’t won an away game in their ISL history and so were desperate to end the tournament on a high.
Atletico de Kolkata had won their last game 4-1 against FC Pune City while Mumbai City FC were coming back from a 3-0 defeat against Chennaiyin FC. Kolkata won the reverse fixture 4-1 thanks to a hat-trick from Canadian striker Iain Hume, and were the favourites to take away all the three points once again.
Atletico made a few changes to their starting XI having already qualified for the playoffs. Amrinder Singh, Augustin Fernandes and Ofentse Nato were replaced by Juan Calatayud, Nallapan Mohanraj and Mohammed Rafique.
Mumbai also made five changes to their squad as Fanai, Darren O'Dea, Ashutosh Mehta, Juan Aguilera and Frederic Piquionne were left out for Keegan Pereira, Pavel Cmovs, Pratesh Shirodkar, Saran Singh and Selim Benachour.
Cmovs also won the Fittest Player of the Match award for his performance in defence throughout the match as Mumbai perforned well all over the pitch.
The game started a bit slowly, and both sides struggled a bit in the opening few minutes. Indian skipper Sunil Chhetri had the first chance of the game from Hero of the Match Benachour’s pass, but his shot was saved by Juan Calatayud.
A minute later, Canadian striker Iain Hume was clear on goal, but his effort went well over the crossbar. It was Mumbai City who took the lead in the 26th minute through Sony Norde as he made a sharp turn inside Atletico’s penalty box to put it past Calatayud.
Though Mumbai City FC’s lead didn’t last long as Atletico de Kolkata were given a penalty just before half-time after Mohammed Rafique was brought down by Pratesh. Iain Hume made no mistake in converting from the spot to score his 10th goal of the season.
Both sides spent most of the second half trying to take the lead again. Benachour was heavily involved for the visitors, while Izumi looked lively for the home side.
Another penalty was awarded in the 81st minute, this time to Mumbai City FC after Aguilera was brought down inside the penalty box by Tiri, and Chhetri converted his penalty calmly, putting it past Calatayud from the spot.
Kolkata responded quickly, and once again leveled it up in the 90th minute through Arata Izumi as he scored his fifth goal of the season. Just when it looked like Izumi had earned his team a point, Mumbai City winger Sony Norde had other plans as he scored a winner in the dying seconds of the game to earn his team the first away win since the inception of the Indian Super League.
That moment of magic from the Haitian won him the Swift Moment of the Match award as it helped Mumbai end their ISL campaign on a high.
Atletico de Kolkata remained at the top of the table after the game, eventually finishing second in the group stages after Goa overtook them. They gave their all in the match against Mumbai City, which would have pleased coach Habas considering they had nothing to lose from the game. Mumbai players would have been happy to win their last game and mark their first away win.
Right-back Rino Anto was awarded the Emerging Player of the match for his lung-bursting runs up and down Atletico’s right flank while Salim Benachour’s great performance in midfield won his team the match.
His playmaking and cutting off opposition attacks helped Mumbai keep up the pressure during crunch time and get the win.
