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In a must-win match for both sides, Delhi Dynamos emerged triumphant over Mumbai City FC at home with a big win as they ran out 4-1 winners to get themselves back in contention for a semi-final spot.
Four different goal scorers found the back of the net for Delhi as they put in a superb team performance to overcome a Mumbai side struggling with injuries to key players and low on confidence.
Mumbai made three changes from the side that lost to Chennaiyin FC with Andre Moritz chiefly sitting out with injury and replaced by Freddie Ljungberg. Johan Letzelter was missing through suspension and so too Peter Costa. Sushil Kumar Singh got a start and Subhash Singh too made a return to the starting line-up. Nicolas Anelka was missing for a second straight game.
Delhi made one change more than their guests with Stijn Houben, Naoba Singh, Munmun Lugun and Mads Junker coming in for Shouvik Ghosh, Pavel Elias, Souvik Chakraborty and Bruno Herrero.
Both teams started in earnest and Sushil had a chance as early as the 2nd minute as Didika put in a good cross from the left, but the forward could not get any power behind it.
Gustavo Dos Santos went close to scoring on 8 minutes after he engineered a good move to create space by playing a back heel to Henrique Dinis who crossed it back towards the Brazilian. His shot though was blocked by a lunging Syed Rahim Nabi away for a corner.
Four minutes later, Delhi went real close again, this time Mads Junker receiving a good ball from Francis Fernandes and peeling off the defenders to slide the ball past Mumbai keeper Subrata Paul. Veteran India man Deepak Mondal however put in a last ditch slide to clear the ball off the line to keep the score level.
Mumbai were looking edgy and unorganized in defence as the hosts fashioned a few more openings with Delhi only failing to score thanks to some last minute interventions and clearances.
Sushil then had another good chance on 25 minutes when Subhash set him up with a lovely cross from the right. He got good power behind his header this time, only to see it go over the bar.
Delhi took the lead on 44 minutes courtesy of a defensive lapse from Mumbai. The ball was switched out wide to the right from where Dinis put in a cross. Manuel Friedrich failed with the first clearance and on the second put it into the path of Hans Mulder who smashed it into the net from just in front of goal.
In the one minute of added time it could have gotten worse for Mumbai as Delhi opened them up with a quick counter through the middle, but Nabi got back in time to put just enough pressure on Junker before he could pull the trigger, allowing Paul to make the save.
Needing more from his team, Peter Reid rang the changes for Mumbai replacing Ljungberg with Javi Fernandez and Subhash with Nadong Bhutia at half-time.
And they did start with more zest, looking to get to the ball quicker. However, it was Delhi who scored a second goal and knocked the stuffing out of their guests a bit. Dos Santos, causing all sorts of trouble for the Mumbai defence, played a lovely through ball to pick out Junker once again and this time the tall forward made no mistake, rolling it past Paul to extend Delhi’s lead.
A glorious goal followed soon for Delhi to make it 3-0; Dos Santos invited Fernandes to make a run down the right, and made a neat little run into the box after playing it to his winger. Nobody picked him up and Dos Santos was left all alone in the s Francis picked him out with a perfect cross and the Brazilian headed it into goal nonchalantly.
Mumbai’s defensive woes continued as they kept giving the ball away easily and were almost made to pay on 67 minutes with Fernandes once again running at the defence and delivering a cross to Junker who went for the spectacular and failed to keep it under control.
India striker Abhishek Yadav was handed his ISL debut as he came on to replace Subhash with 19 minutes to go. Delhi too made a change with Shylo Malswamatulunga replaced by Manish Bhargav.
Dos Santos broke again with fury on 75 minutes after dispossessing Mumbai at the halfway line, leading a three-on-two Delhi break and instead of taking a shot teed Francis up on his right whose shot ruffled the side netting.
The subs for Mumbai were having an impact, both Fernandes and Yadav. And Mumbai did get a goal back on 86 minutes, breaking their four game goal drought, Yadav arriving in the box to tuck away a good cross from Sushil on the left with a left-footed strike.
The goals in the beginning of the half however had done the job and Delhi rounded it off in style with Bhargav netting a goal in injury time to cap things off. Substitute Steven Dias made a lovely run to get around Mumbai’s defence on the right and centred the ball with Paul taken out, Manandeep’s effort was smothered by Paul, but the rebound fell to Bhargav, who smashed it in to become the first Indian goal scorer for the Dynamos.
The Man of the Match expectedly went to Dos Santos. The Brazilian was a livewire throughout the match and caused Friedrich and Pavel Cmovs in the centre of Mumbai’s defence all sorts of problems.
The win takes Delhi to fifth, ahead of NorthEast United FC on goal difference thanks to the emphatic scoreline. For Mumbai, another disappointing away day at the office as they found themselves on the wrong end of a heavy defeat that pushed them to the bottom of the table.
