MATCH REPORT: 2 wins on the trot for Pune as NEU own goal and lost chances scar good effort

AN OWN GOAL FROM ZOHMINGLIANA RALTE and a myriad of missed chances spoiled the night for NorthEast United as they went down to FC Pune City in a match that looked set for a goalless fate. 

The first half was a tale of nearly-there efforts as David Platt's FC Pune City, boosted by their 3-1 win over Mumbai City, took on a NorthEast United side desparate to make a comeback from their 3-1 loss to Kerala Blasters.

Both teams made several changes to their starting line-ups. Pune City gave their marquee player Adrian Mutu a start, replacing Tuncay Sanli who scored two goals for them in the previous game. Dharmaraj Ravanan, Fanai Lalrempuia and Yendrick Ruiz too were given their first start of the season.

NorthEast United looked to solidify their defence with Bracigliano in goal instead of Rehenesh and putting in Yumnam Raju instead of Seityasen Singh. Elsewhere, Sanju Pradhan, Francis Dadzie and Zohmingliana Ralte were also introduced into the starting line up. The really bad news for them was that Miguel Garcia's ligament injury is looking bad and he may be out for the whole season.

The match began with the Argentine Nicolas Velez announcing his intentions by earning an early corner from a Ravanan long ball. Then Pune City sought to put some pressure back on NEUFC with a high ball forward which found Israil Gurung, who headed it in for Maithani, and it almost caught Bracigliano off position but the latter somehow managed to get his hand to the ball. 

The French keeper was tested again as Nicky's cross was served up to Mutu by Yendick. Mutu's shot saw Bracigliano dive and deflect it for a corner. 

Mutu's mobile presence put some pressure on the opposition. Medio Silas picked up a yellow early on by chasing Mutu down and fouling him from behind. The game got a bit nasty as Velez took on Manish Maithani who brought him down and earned a yellow of his own, as Velez had to get bandage on his face to stop the bleeding. The resulting free kick saw Kamara almost score. 

The Argentine striker didn't let the injury bog him down and kept troubling the Pune defence. Ravanan was no match for his speed. But he committed the sin of going for glory a couple of times when he could have easily passed to a better-positioned colleague.

After the half hour mark Kamara invaded the box and took a shot at the goal. Ravanan got his foot to the ball, and the deflection caused it to miss the target by inches. 

The resulting corner kick found Velez inside the box who headed the ball towards the goal and missed it narrowly. 

NorthEast United, after starting in a more defensive posture, took to more and more attacks as their agility constantly frustrated the Pune City midfielders. Most of the attacks that the home side got resulted in shots from distance. Israil Gurung, who had been dominant with his runs up the wing against Mumbai City has been somewhat muted tonight, other than a couple of good crosses which failed to put much pressure on the visitors' defence. NEUFC's debutant keeper has still looked somewhat shaky, missing his position and dropping the ball a few times. 

But the half ended goalless. It was clear that Pune City needed to take back the midfield and introduce more pace up front. They chose to call it an early night for Israil Gurung and introduced Sushant Mathew. At the hour mark, there was a much-needed change up front too. The agile and in-form Tuncay Sanli replaced Adrian Mutu. 

Velez was still doing most of the work though. He got a shot early on and missed the target. Then it was Dadzie with some end-to-end effort as he cleared a shot from Lenny, then ran up for the counter, received a cross from Sanju Pradhan, had a go at the goal but shot it wide.

And then Tuncay scored. A header (from a NEUFC player) found him inside the box and he slotted it in. But the referee surprisingly called him offside. Tuncay could not believe it and protested, but the goal was disallowed. 

Pune City got their goal though. In a more bizarre manner. Zohmingliana Ralte fought with Tuncay for the ball and conceded a corner. Nicky sent in the corner kick and it took a deflection off Ralte again, and went right into the net. After more than 70 minutes of trying, Pune City finally had their lead, through an own goal. 

Velez had a chance to immediately get back at the home side. A high ball from Dadzie cleared the Pune defenders and found Velez. Keeper Simonsen charged ahead to block him. Velez managed to get the ball past him but it went slightly off target, into the side-netting. 

From here the game saw some good efforts from Tuncay, newly introduced Kalu Uche and Velez, but nothing came off it and the match ended in a 1-0 win for FC Pune City. While the manner of the win was rather unsatisfactory, David Platt will be more than happy to take two back-to-back wins to start the season with. He will, however, will have a frown at the way his midfield functioned tonight. And the fact that playing his marquee player Adrian Mutu caused the forward line to become much less threatening. It was the introduction of Sanli, in the end, that created the necessary pressure that got them the goal. Had the assistant referee not wrongly called offside on the Turkish striker, Pune would be winning by more than an own goal.

NorthEast United, on the other hand, will be kicking themselves for not being able to secure a point from this game. For most of the game they had the better chances, clipped the lethal wing-play that Pune used to defeat Mumbai, threatened their defence many times especially through Nicolas Velez. But they were unable to captialize. Of the 13 shots they managed to put together, only 4 were on target. Pune City had 13 shots of their own, and every single of them were on goal. Rather than the freak own goal, it was lack of precision that prevented NEUFC from getting a lead and claim the game.

The Highlanders will now return home with two defeats from two games of the season. They are currently exactly where they finished last year, at the bottom of the table. They will now face FC Goa on their first home match of the season. Another tough challenge which, reeling from these two bad results, will look like a mountain to climb for the Highlanders.
 
Pune City will face Delhi Dynamos on Wednesday. Another home game that the Stallions will want to charge into with all the confidence that comes with being on top of the table after two straight wins. But playing on David Platt's mind already will be the prospect of facing the defending champions Atletico de Kolkata on Saturday, at their fourth straight home game of the season. There are a number of flaws he will have to set right and the Delhi game is the perfect platform to address them. After that match, they will be further boosted by players like Eugeneson Lyngdoh, Jackichand Singh, Pritam Kotal and Bikash Jairu returning from national team duty, and take on their biggest challenge of the season with a reinforced squad. 

Watch below the fans reacting to their team winning two games in a row

TFG NEWSLETTER: Exclusive and Stimulating articles delivered Free into your Inbox every day! Subscribe to TFG TIMEs