ISL 2018-19, Mumbai City FC 1-0 Bengaluru FC: 5 Talking Points

#4 Mumbai's defence holds firm - AGAIN

Mumbai City celebrate with their fans

Lucian Goian - proudly belting out Jana Gana Mana and all - has been a massive influence on this Mumbai City FC season.

With three Indians around him in the rearguard, Goian has been the leader, and the man to knit everything together. And boy, has he knitted everything together!

On Sunday, in the second half, Bengaluru decided that they'd rather go long and direct, rather than building play up through midfield.

Against the likes of Goian and Anwar Ali, with smaller men like Chhetri and Udanta on the receiving end of most of those passes, that was always going to be one that met with failure.

Anwar, in particular, deserves a massive amount of credit for his performance last night. One of Bengaluru's big weapons has always been the early release from Gurpreet Singh Sandhu towards Udanta on the right wing. Anwar was always in position to make the interception from that kind of ball.

Mumbai's desire to keep the clean sheet and defend well was exemplified by Goian in the second half, when a Sunil Chhetri half-chance came to nothing.

The Romanian absolutely lost it at Souvik Chakraborty, after the right-back had not kept track of Chhetri's movement in the box.

Although some might say that scuffling between two players of the same team isn't exactly the most pleasant sight to watch, it is also a sign that there are leaders in this Mumbai side, and that they are an incredibly difficult team to score against.