ISL: Mumbai bag bragging rights in Maharashtra derby Pro Kabaddi: Telugu Titans beat Patna Pirates 35-31
Mumbai City FC player Nkufo Arnold (Blue Jersey no 7) and FC Pune City player Lalchhuanmawia Fania (white Jersey no 31) vie for the ball during India Super League football match in Mumbai Friday MUMBAI: Mumbai City FC registered their first win of the current Indian Super League (ISL) season and it came at the expense of their Maharashtra rivals FC Pune City at the Mumbai Football Arena here on Friday.
A maiden goal in Mumbai colours for Modou Sougou (25th minute) and a penalty from Rafael Bastos (45th) sealed Mumbai's 2-0 win, their first at home in four attempts in the Maharashtra derby.
After a fairly uneventful start, Mumbai drew first blood through Sougou. The Senega
lese forward made no error with an emphatic finish from close range after Paulo Machado's cross had rebounded off the crossbar.
At the other end, Emiliano Alfaro was starting to
look threatening for Pune and the Uruguayan vociferously appealed for a penalty after going down under Subhashish Bose's challenge, to no avail.
However, a spot-kick would be awarded at the other end eventually in the dying minutes of the first session. A scrappy phase of play found Mumbai's attackers with a numerical advantage over Pune's defenders. Bastos attempted to set Sougou through on goal but the Senegalese was brought down by a challenge from behind from Chhuantea Fanai.
The referee had no hesitation in blowing his whistle for a penalty. Bastos stepped up for the penalty and made no mistake from the spot, sending Vishal Kaith the wrong way.
Pune came out with some much-needed urgency after the break. However, it were the hosts who should have extended their lead around the hour mark when Machado surged forward on a mesmerising run. The Portuguese's attempt after cutting in from the left flew inches wide off the target.
Miguel Angel Portugal threw on Marcelinho as he sought to get his side back into the game and the Brazilian almost made an instant impact with a snapshot from the edge of the area where Amrinder Singh was alert enough.
Alfaro almost reduced the deficit in the 65th minute with a sharp turn and shot in the 65th minute following a cross from Golui. But his effort agonisingly scraped the crossbar before going out of play.
Jorge Costa shored up the hosts' defence as they looked to protect their two-goal lead with Pune's attackers being thwarted repeatedly despite coming forward in numbers.
There would be another spot-kick awarded in added time, once again to the hosts. A quick breakaway saw Arnold Sissoko skip past the Pune defence before he was hacked down in the box by Gurtej Singh. Lucian Goian stepped up to take the penalty but his effort was saved well by Kaith who guessed the right way. PUNE: Telugu Titans rode on a solid defensive performance by Vishal Bhardwaj and Abozar Mighani to beat defending champions Patna Pirates 35-31 in Vivo Pro Kabaddi Season VI on Friday.
Both the defenders combined to score 11 tackle points and kept Patna's star man Pardeep Narwal to ensure the Titans' third win of the season.
With Pardeep misfiring and their defence faltering, Patna suffered their second defeat. Manjeet and Vijay together score 16 raid points for Patna but it wasn't enough.
For Telugu Titans, Rahul Chaudhari got seven raid points.
Telugu Titans defence started off brightly as they sent Pardeepnarwal to the bench and led 2-0 after two minutes.
Nilesh Salunke scored with a two-point raid to make it 4-0 for Titans in the third minute. Patna Pirates scored a bonus point and sent Rahul Chaudhari off the mat to make it 3-4 after five minutes.
Patna Pirates got two point raid through Manjeet into lead for the first time in the match in the ninth minute. It took Pardeep 10 minutes to open his account as Patna Pirates led 8-6.
He followed it up with a twopoint raid in the next minute as Patna inflicted the first all out of the match to lead 11-9.
Telugu Titans suffered from Chaudhari's indifferent form in the first half. Patna Pirates maintained their advantage at the end of the half as they went into the break leading 17-14.
Rahul Chaudhari scored a raid point in the 25th minute as Titans inflicted an all out to lead 22-21.
Telugu Titans picked up two bonus points and then scored a tackle point to lead 25-21 after 27 minutes. Pardeep had a quiet start to the second half as he scored just one point in the first 10 minutes. Patna Pirates were trailing 24-27 when they sent Chaudhari to the bench to cut the lead to just one point. Telugu Titans forced a super tackle in the 33rd minute to lead 29-28.
With less than five minutes left, Manjeet scored a crucial raid point as Patna tied the match at 30-30. Mighani sent Pardeep to the bench with a brilliant super tackle and gave Telugu Titans 32-31 lead. Mohisn Maghsoudlou made a critical raid in the 39th minute to give Titans 33-31 lead.