ISL: Chennaiyin FC extend lead at the top with a 3-0 win over Mumbai City FC

Chennaiyin FC produced a strong second half to register a good away win in Mumbai

Mumbai City FC’s run of five straight clean sheets was brought to an end by Chennaiyin FC as emerged 3-0 winners in a key game at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. Bruno Pelissari, who starred for Chennai after coming on as a substitute for Elano in the last game, was once again a bright spark as he helped his team to a crucial road win.

Leading goal scorers Elano and John Stiven Mendoza were absent for Chennai along with defender Gouramangi Singh while star striker Nicolas Anelka missed out for Mumbai. Syed Rahim Nabi and Tiago Ribeiro came in for Anelka and Subhash Singh for Mumbai while Pelissari earned himself a starting spot replacing Elano and Balwant Singh coming in for Mendoza.

In the end, some good finishing from Chennai and calamitous defending from Mumbai led to an easy win for the league leaders.

A game of high stakes and one with so much potential fallout saw a very cagey first half with the game being very scrappy. Neither team could find much penetration with their passing and were guilty of giving away possession too many times, quite easily at that.

Chances were few and far between with defensive errors looking more likely to be the source of a breakthrough as compared to any incisive play. Mumbai had the first one as early as the 5th minute when midfielder Jan Stohanzl made a good run into the box, but he was a touch early to receive Johan Letzelter’s cross and ended up getting bad contact on the ball.

Mumbai had another really good chance when Bernard Mendy was dispossessed and Andre Moritz shifted the ball onto his right foot before taking a shot. It was blocked by Gennaro Bracigliano in the Chennai goal and the rebound fell to Ribeiro who smashed it into a defender.

Chennai produced a few good openings, but were mostly restricted to taking shots from outside the box with Pelissari, Jeje Lalpekhlua and Balwant all having attempts from long range. The visitors though managed to finish the first half stronger, retaining more possession and applying pressure through a few corners.

There was another setback for Mumbai in the period as playmaker Moritz pulled up with a hamstring strain, in what looked like a recurrence of the injury from the Goa game, and was taken off to be replaced by Freddie Ljungberg who was making his own return from a hamstring strain.

Freddie Ljungberg came on for Mumbai but couldn’t inspire his team

Chennai seized the momentum in the second half looking sharper than the hosts and almost took the lead immediately after the restart as Balwant stole the ball off Manuel Friedrich on the edge of the box to set up Pelissari. The Brazilian’s shot though was high and wide, but the warning had been served.

Off the resulting goal kick, Mumbai gave the ball away again and Pelissari once more found himself on the ball and this time his long shot brought out a punch save from Paul. As the half wore on, it looked ever more likely like Chennai were the team going to get the goal. After saving a Tiago Ribeiro free-kick, Bracigliano quickly released the ball to Harmanjot Khabra who had acres of space to run into and deliver a cross to Balwant whose header lacked power and was gathered by Paul.

The breakthrough eventually came on 72 minutes as Mumbai produced a comedy of errors to shoot themselves in the foot. Chennai captain Bojan Djordjic played a good long ball forward to Balwant who tried hard, but failed to get to it in time. Pavel Cmovs somehow managed to make a mess of the clearance and allowed Balwant an opportunity to sneak in. The Indian forward’s dive was again a near miss and Mumbai defender Peter Costa ended up going over him leaving Pelissari completely free to slot the ball past Paul.

Chennai were beginning to take control of the match with Mumbai hardly registering a threat going forward and six minutes later Chennai had the insurance goal as Mumbai once again went to sleep on a corner as the defence pretty much stopped playing after Paul came out to punch the initial delivery. While Mumbai seemingly were waiting for a whistle, Chennai were alert to the situation and left-back Dhanachandra Singh got on the ball and coolly slotted the ball past the stationary Mumbai defenders.

It was to get better for the away team as the home side imploded going in search of the equalizer. Substitute Cristian Hidalgo put away a sweet, curling free-kick past Paul after being fouled by Letzelter just outside the box.

It was another heavy defeat for Mumbai against Chennai after the defeat from earlier in the tournament and it sees them dropping to sixth place in the table on goal difference. Chennai meanwhile extended their advantage at the top of the table over Atletico de Kolkata to three points. Mumbai’s clean sheet record did go, but their worrying goal drought continued as they failed to score for the third game in a row. Coach Peter Reid and his team now have a fight on their hands to make the semi-finals.