Mumbai danced their way to a 2-0 win at home over Chennaiyin FC, courtesy goals from Matias Defederico and Krisztian Vadocz. The win also helped Mumbai become the first team to seal a semifinal spot in this year's Indian Super League. Playing at the Mumbai Football Arena, the home team were clearly the better team from the start and their win was well deserved.
We pore over a few things that we learnt from this game.
#1 What a turnaround for Mumbai it has been
Mumbai City FC were amongst the worst sides in the first two seasons of the ISL. They finished with 16 points in both seasons and were at the receiving end of quite a few heavy defeats especially against their opponents today, Chennaiyin FC. Before this season, they had lost all four games against Chennaiyin and had not even scored a goal in their home fixture.
This year, they've gone undefeated against them, showing the character to grab a late equaliser away at Chennai and now registering a comfortable home win against them.
A lot of credit must be given to the management for putting together a very good squad of players as well as picking a very astute head coach, both of the moves having paid off hugely.
Having not even been close to having a sniff of the playoffs previously to being the first to qualify this year, in the most competitive of seasons yet, is worthy of appreciation. The improvement has been significant to the extent that they look a good bet to go all the way and claim the title.
#2 The mobile, pacy offence vs the sluggish, physical one
This was a game of two contrasting attacks - Mumbai's fast-paced one with it's small and mobile attackers up front relying on their movement across the pitch against Chennaiyin’s one-paced physical approach with their reliance on set-pieces and counters.
One was clearly better and the scoreline was reflective of that.
Mumbai's attacks were incisive, Chennaiyin’s wasn't, and that was the story of the match. The final possession figures were reflective of this as despite having 52% of it, thanks majorly to the second half where they had more of the ball, Chennaiyin didn't carve out any clear-cut openings, and were left with testing out Amarinder Singh in Mumbai's goal with long-range efforts that didn't trouble him much.
The few good chances that they did have came from free-kicks with John Arne Riise putting in some good balls for the big men in the side to attack.
#3 Chennaiyin’s away woes continue
The defending champions have had a torrid time in this 2016 season. The team's performances have been very flat in general with only one of their six trips so far ending in victory.
In the two previous away games before this one, they had lost 0-3 away at Kerala Blasters and 1-4 at Delhi Dynamos. This was a third straight defeat on the road for them that has seen them concede seven times and score just once. What's of note is that their final league game is also on the road, against Goa. If Chennaiyin are still in the race for the semis by the time that fixture comes around, they will need to bring about a turnaround.
#4 Mumbai's win allows them time to kick back
Mumbai have only one game remaining in the league phase after this and what's more, they have 10 days off between now and that final game.
Having clinched their semifinal spot, it puts the team in the best possible position, with a lengthy period off giving the players time to rest and shake off those knocks and niggles. They can even afford to play a second string team against the Dynamos and stay in the best possible shape ahead of their first ever appearance in the semis.
#5 What Chennaiyin will hold onto
There might not be too much for Marco Materazzi and his Chennaiyin side to take back from this victory, but when the dust settles on this one and they look forward to the next game, the one thing they can be thankful about is that the game finished 0-2.
With this latest defeat, Chennaiyin have been pushed to the very brink in their quest to make the semifinals and besides the points against their name, they are also battling their negative goal difference. They already had a -2 goal difference before this game and now that's gone to -4. It could have gotten much more ugly as Mumbai had very good chances to turn the screws.
They now head back home for a clash against NorthEast United on Saturday which really is a must-win for Materazzi’s men.
