ISL 2018-19: Pune City 0-2 NorthEast United – Hits and Flops as the Highlanders climbed to second on the league table

Flop: Marcelinho (FC Pune City)

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The one player who needed to rose to the occasion was Pune’s Brazilian striker Marcelinho. Pune have already loaned Emiliano Alfaro to ATK and Diego Carlos was suspended for this match. In their absence, Marcelinho was expected to shine in front of the home fans.

Marcelinho and Hume built up a good understanding with each other. They were exchanging ball quite smoothly and almost all the attack in the first half came from their feet. On a couple of occasions, Marcelinho went near the goalmouth but failed to make the opportunity count.

Surprisingly, his performance faded as the second half started. The only negative point for him is, he loses cool too often. Within ten minutes in the second half, there came one occasion. Jose Leudo pushed Marcelinho out of the field with his shoulder. That was a fair challenge and the referee didn’t give any foul.

Seeing the denial from the officials, Marcelinho got up and rashly fouled Leudo. This time the whistle was blown by the Singaporean referee Mohammad Taqi and Marcelinho was verbally cautioned.

So bad was his performance in the second half Reddy replaced him more than ten minutes before the match, knowing they had no one to score.