ISL 2015: Sony Norde's late winner sees Mumbai City beat Atletico de Kolkata 3-2

Sony Norde grabbed a brace for Mumbai City (Image courtesy of ISL)

Mumbai City left it late to finish their campaign on a high as they beat Atletico de Kolkata 3-2 at the Salt Lake Stadium on Friday night. A brace from Sony Norde and a penalty from Sunil Chhetri saw the Mumbai side finally win a game after going winless in their last seven fixtures.

First Half

Atletico de Kolkata made 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 City FC also made five changes to their squad, Fanai, Darren O'Dea, Ashutosh Mehta, Juan Aguilera and Frederic Piquionne were left out for Keegan Pereira, Pavel Cmovs, Pratesh Shirodhkar, Saran Singh and Selim Benachour.

Mumbai City had the first chance of the game in the 7th minute after Sony Norde burst into Atletico de Kolkata’s penalty box from the left to put in a dangerous ball for Chhetri, but Augustin did well to clear it. A few seconds later, Benachour played a long ball for Chhetri that opened the Atletico defence, and the Indian skipper was through on goal, but his shot was saved.

Iain Hume had a golden chance in the 10th minute to put the home side in the lead after he was clear on goal, but his shot was just wide. Both teams started off well, and looked great offensively in the opening minutes of the game. The home side again came close to scoring in the 16th minute after a brilliant long ball from Jaime Gavilan to Sammehg Doutie opened the Mumbai City defence, but the South African chose to take a shot himself, despite Iain Hume waiting just six yards away from the goal.

Mumbai City were forced to make an early substitution after Rowilson seemed to pull his hamstring and was replaced by Ashutosh Mehta. 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.

Atletico had a chance in the 38th minute through Hume to level it up after Subrata Paul came out of his line to clear the ball, but instead passed it directly to Hume. But the Canadian striker’s shot was wide. Chhetri had a brilliant chance to extend the lead for the visitors from Benachour’s pass, but the Indian skipper shot was just wide.

But just before the break, Hume leveled the score for Atletico from the spot kick after Mohammed Rafique was brought down by Pratesh.

Second Half

Just after the break, Benachour had a chance to take the shot inside Atletico’s penalty box, but instead he chose to cut past the defence to lay it off for Norde and the chance was gone. Atletico had a golden chance to take the lead in the 54th minute after Hume released Arata Iuzmi but Bustos did well to track back and make a tackle.

Benachour again created a goal scoring chance in the 56th minute, this time for Saran, whose shot was pushed away by Calatayud. Both teams slowed down a bit after the opening few minutes of the second half, and it took a penalty in the 81st minute to break the deadlock.

Aguilera was brought down inside the penalty box by Tiri, and Chhetri made no mistakes to put it past Calatayud from the spot kick. Just when Atletico players looked tired, Izumi leveled the score again for the home team in the 90th minute with his fifth goal of the season.

Just when we thought the game looked like it would end in a draw, Norde scored his second goal of the game to give Mumbai City their first away win of the season.