Team's win is more important for me: Tuncay Sanli

Tuncay’s brace sealed victory for the Pune team

According to last night’s hero Tuncay Sanli, the team winning the game was more important to him than his goals. The Turkish legend thanked the Pune fans for all their support in the first Maharashtra derby of ISL 2015.

“Good game, good performance by the team. Thank you for the support, thank you to my team. I am happy that our team won the first match”, He said when asked about his views regarding the match.

He believes that the team needs to continue this performance and show valour in the future matches in order to emerge as champions.

Man of the Match Sanli scored two brilliant headers from inch perfect crosses from Israil Gurung whereas Frederic Piquionne converted for the Mumbai side.

Mumbai started off on the front foot, controlling the early minutes of the match before a vicious counter-attack from Pune gave them the lead.

After that Mumbai City FC striker Piquionne scored with a well-timed run right before the half time. David Platt changed his whole strategy after the break, pushing Nicky Shorey back to his preferred left back position. This worked wonders as the Mumbai City players were hardly able to penetrate the Pune defense.

The Pune franchise team added another goal from an amazing cross from the right wing by Gurung, which was headed in by Sanli.

Pune coach David Platt was very happy with Israil Gurung’s performance in the match. Israil came in after playing very little part in the friendly last week. He did very well, not just in the two assists and the goal he got, but also his work rate, the way he took to the game, to attack the opposition.

Lenny Rodrigues’s injury right before the end of the match could put Platt in a spot of bother before the team’s next match against North East United FC. The young Goan midfielder was also a standout performer for the Pune side in yesterday’s game.

FC Pune city is scheduled to play back to back four consecutive home games before travelling for four away games. In these circumstances it is very important for the team to keep up the momentum before travelling away from home. They will be playing against the North East United FC team on 9th October in Pune next.