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Delhi Dynamos and FC Pune City played out a goalless draw in the third match of the ISL at the Jawahar Lal Nehru stadium in New Delhi. Delhi had the majority of the chances including a shot by the substitute Dos Santos which hit the post but FC Pune City did just about enough to hold them to a draw till the end. The match started off brightly but then slowly the tempo petered out and apart from a frantic end, the game didn’t have a lot of talking points.
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Del Piero brought on midway through the first half
Van Veldhoven started with 2 strikers up front and Del Piero on the bench. The two Danes, Junker and Skuobo started together with Mama operating on the left and Francisco on the right. The Indian wingers for the Delhi side looked confident and comfortable on the ball. The first shot on target came from Junker but it was straight at Belardi.
Hans Mulder and Bruno Herrero looked to dominate the Pune midfield consisting of Lenny Rodigues, Manish Maithani and Kostas Katsouranis but they could succeed only in patches and did not have enough in their locker to instil proper fluidity which would break their resistance.
Pune City looked like they had come for a point right from kick off. Much to the delight of the home crowd, Del Piero was brought onto the pitch in the 38th minute and added the extra flair which was missing, which saw the link up play increase.
Delhi dominated the second half but couldn’t catch a break
The 2nd half started much like the first. In the 54th minute Shylo went past two Pune defenders but his cross was blocked in the middle. Both Francisco and Shylo saw a lot of the ball and gave Pune’s wingbacks a hard time but the experienced Pune centre defense kept things at bay when things got more central. David Trezeguet was hardly involved, except for some failed link up play and a disallowed goal.
Colomba brought on Dudu to replace Park in a bid to play some direct football on the counter attack. This did not affect Delhi’s strategy to play a high line and carve penetrative balls. Del Piero almost pulled out the missing rabbit out the hat when his low left footed shot blazed past the post. Pune City tried to build something on the counter but failed final balls only meant that they had to continue defending rather than attack.
Substitute Dos Santos thought that he had bagged the 3 points for the hosts when his left footed grounder hit the far post. This was as close as DDFC had come to a goal in an otherwise dull game. DDFC will head to Kolkata for the next game on 19th while Pune City F.C will be hosted by neighbours Mumbai on the 18th.
Del Piero was declared the Hero of the match, while Shylo Malswamtluanga won the Fittest player of the match award and Berrardi was given the Swift moment of the match award for his save in the first half.
