Mumbai City FC made it three wins in a row as they beat Odisha FC in their 2020-21 Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) match at the GMC Stadium in Bambolim on Sunday. In what was the first game of the day, Mumbai City, under Sergio Lobera, dominated the contest from start to finish and had Bartholomew Ogbeche and Rowllin Borges to thank for their goals in the first half.
In a half heavily dominated by Mumbai City, Odisha almost scored the first goal of the game as Diego Mauricio’s free-kick from just outside the box clipped the crossbar in the fourth minute. The freekick was awarded after Borges’ push had floored Nandhakumar Sekar.
Mumbai too had a great opportunity of their own to take the lead in the 18th minute as Ahmed Jahouh picked out Cy Goddard in the final third by means of a long ball. However, the Japanese midfielder’s strike went well over the crossbar.
Mumbai finally broke the deadlock in the 30th minute after Shubham Sarangi’s hand-ball off Vignesh Dakshinamurthy’s cross was declared a penalty. Ogbeche stepped up and did the rest with ease, putting Mumbai City in the ascendancy. Four minutes later Mumbai’s Mourtada Fall headed the ball into the net but the goal was disallowed for a Fall foul on Odisha goalkeeper Kamaljit Singh, who had to be taken off the pitch after a collision.
Mumbai City got another opportunity to score in the 43rd minute as Bipin Singh raced ahead on the left and found Hugo Boumous in the box, however, the latter’s shot was wide of the target.
Odisha completely fell behind in the game in the 45th minute when Borges headed in a cross provided by Bipin from the left. Both teams went into break with the scoreboard reading 2-0 in Mumbai’s favour -- rightly so.
Mumbai continued their attacking style of play and four minutes into the second half Ogbeche’s shot took a deflection from Steven Taylor and went off the target. Odisha had brought on Marcelo Pereira at the start of the second half but the Brazilian couldn’t make much of an impact as the Islanders continued dominating possession and creating opportunities one after the other. However, there was no goal to show for their efforts. In the 73rd minute, Mauricio was replaced by Manuel Onwu but he too failed to turn Odisha’s fortunes around.
Marcelo went closest to pulling one back on the evening for Odisha three minutes from time but his shot from distance just missed the target. In stoppage time, Laishram Singh also had a good opportunity to halve the lead but he was way off the target. That proved to be the last significant piece of action in terms of goal-scoring opportunities as Mumbai registered their third win in four games, while Odisha suffered their third defeat in four games.
ISL Media Release