Mumbai FC try hard, but lose the fight against East Bengal

Mumbai, February 1: Despite conceding two early goals, Mumbai FC showed solid fighting spirit and they worked hard as they tried their best to turn things around but they could halt East Bengal, Kolkata from snatching a 2-0 win from their sixth round I-League 2016-2017 clash at the Barasat District Sports Stadium, Kolkata on Wednesday evening. Striker Willis Plaza scored the two goals for the Kolkata outfit.

The home side boasting of a strong forwardline managed to break down the Mumbai defence to take the lead Plaza scored from an opening created by defender Rahul Bheke in the 10^th minute. Bheke, a former Mumbai FC defender, from the right chipped into the Mumbai area for Plaza chested the ball down and fired past Mumbai stopper back Chinta Rao Chandrashekhar and goalkeeper Kunal Sawant sending the ball to the far post.

The leaders East Bengal doubled their lead seven minutes later with Plaza once again finding the back of the net. This time the Trinidad & Tobago international controlled the ball well as he got past rival defender Shallum Pires before hammering home another powerful left footer.

The Mumbai side who tried different strategies to try and create clear goal-scoring opportunities came close on a couple of occasions. Farukh Chowdhary and Pires managed to find space inside the rival territory but they were unable to find the back of the net.

Mumbai FC coach Santosh Kashyap in an attempt to add more teeth to the attack made two substitutions inside the first ten minutes of the second half, when he brought in Karan Sawhney and Victorino Fernandes for Allan Dias and Farukh Choudhary respectively. However, Victorino did not last too long as he collided with East Bengal fullback Narayan Das and had to be stretchered off as he suffered a concussion.

Victorino was later taken to a nearby hospital and he is out of danger. “Victorino had a mild concussion. We took to a hospital and as precautionary measure we did some test and all the results have shown that he has no injury and was discharged. He is back with the team in the hotel,” Prashant Godbole, the team manager said.

 East Bengal has now recorded their fifth win in as many games and also ended Mumbai’s fine unbeaten run of the last three seasons.

The Kolkata giants now has 16 points from six outings while Mumbai after two wins in the initial rounds suffered their fourth loss on the trot of the campaign.

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