Delhi Dynamos administered a clinical dismantling of Mumbai City FC as the host recorded a 4-1 win on a misty night at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Friday.
Manager Harm van Veldhoven would have been particularly pleased by the manner in which the goals were scored. The move for every goal started in Dynamos’ own half. Not to forget, a lot of Dynamos’ play on Friday served as an affirmation of van Veldhoven’s vision for his side.
Dynamos were forced to make four changes against Mumbai since Souvik Ghosh, Pavel Elias and Bruno Arias were injured and Souvik Chakraborthy suspended.
Dynamic front threeImportantly, though, van Veldhoven persisted with a dynamic front three. Mads Junker came into the side, Francis Fernandes started in the centre and Gustavo dos Santos once again drifted in from the wide.
Mumbai was setup to play a 4-3-3 formation as well but its shape was different. Behind the forward trio, Jan Stohanzl, Freddie Ljungberg and Tiago Ribeiro functioned in a midfield triangle.
Dynamos dominated the possession and edged the first half proceedings too. The interchange of positions between the forwards was augmented by the midfield runs from Shylo Malsawmtluanaga and Henrique Dinis.
The host could have gone ahead in the 12th minute when Fernandes played Junker through, only to see the Dane’s shot cleared off the line by Deepak Mondal.
Mumbai posed the occasional threat, especially as Subhash Singh ran past left-back Munmun Lugun a few times, but the best it could produce was a Sushil Singh header that narrowly missed the bar.
As half-time approached, the match acquired a duller character but a seven-pass move that started when Anwar Ali intercepted the ball in his own half brought an opportunity for Dynamos.
Mulder had taken five touches in the lead-up to the goal and his sixth was a volleyed finish as Manuel Friedrich dealt poorly with Dinis’ cross. The ball deflected off Fernandes and fell kindly for Mulder.
Contest overMumbai introduced Nadong Bhutia and Francisco Luque at half-time but 15 minutes into the second period, the contest was effectively over.
Firstly, Anwar intercepted another pass and the ball was swiftly circulated to Junker who slid the ball past goalkeeper Subrata Paul.
Ten minutes later, a throw-in led to a move that gained momentum when dos Santos released Fernandes on the right. The Indian forward returned the favour by delivering a whipped cross that met the head of the unmarked former.
This was counterattacking football at its best. Dynamos had more opportunities thereafter but they were not converted. Not that it hurt the host. Mumbai did pull one back through Abhishek Yadav but Manish Bhargav’s maiden ISL goal extended the lead in injury-time.
The result: Delhi Dynamos 4 (Hans Mulder 44, Mads Junker 50, Gustavo dos Santos 60, Manish Bhargav 90+3) bt Mumbai City FC 1 (Abhishek Yadav 86).
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