Ahead of their clash in the I-League here at the Nehru Stadium on Saturday, both Mumbai FC and Chennai City were wary of their common wrong that had to be righted —conceding goals.
Chennai was better at it, to emerge the winner with a 2-1 margin.
It was Chennai’s second win of the season and that places it seventh in the points table with seven points from eight games. Mumbai’s now eighth with six points from eight games.
Both teams scored a goal each in the first half. Mumbai went ahead in the 28th minute, when Brazilian Anderson Raimundo converted a penalty, seconds after he had come in for Hitesh Sharma.
Fantastic header
Chennai drew level the next minute, as Dhanpal Ganesh headed a corner-kick off Edwin Sydney Vanspaul to the left corner of the net.
There were chances a few founded and frittered on either side of the goals.
Mumbai failed to try work the corner kick off Nikhil Kadam, from the right, to pressurise and threaten. This, after his curling free-kick into the box, from the left, had no takers.
There was a promising surge from Reagan Singh, who got into the box, but he had to trick past a defender, and thus was cut off those few seconds to steady, envision, and shoot.
There was another free-kick for Mumbai then, that deflected off Ganesh for Anderson to score, but he was flagged off-side.
For Chennai, Yumnam Raju, seeking to get into the box on the right, managed to get the ball past a defender, but stumbled and abandoned it.
Charles de Souza’s winning goal for Chennai was the highlight of the second half. He received a throw-in with his back to the goal, flipped the ball over both himself and his marker, turned and went past a defender, and eventually the goalkeeper for a tap-in.
The results: Chennai City FC 2 (Ganesh 29, Charles de Souza 69) bt Mumbai FC (Raimundo 28).
At Shillong: Shillong Lajong 1 (Dipanda 33) lost to DSK Shivajians 2 (Sanju Pradhan 16, McFaul 44).
