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The first 'Maha Derby' of the ISL 2017 season was a slow burner. It got off to a very sedate start but gathered momentum rapidly in the second half.
Balwant Singh's early goal gave visitors Mumbai City FC the lead and it looked like we were set for a repeat of the result from last year in this corresponding fixture. Pune City though, mounted a spirited comeback in the second half and roared on by their home fans, completed a 2-1 win in the dying seconds of the match. It meant two back-to-back wins for Pune after losing their first game, a result that sees them go joint top with Bengaluru FC.
Here's what stood out from the game:
#1 Pune too hospitable early on
It is always said that one must be a gracious and generous host, but not on a football pitch. Pune were far too welcoming to their cross-state rivals early in this match as they afforded visiting Mumbai City far too much time and space on the ball in the opening 20 minutes.
Gerson Viera and the rest of Mumbai's midfielders got plenty of time when they had the ball at their feet and with Pune not offering even the faintest of pressure, they were able to pass the ball around with ease. It certainly helped them get off to a good start in a crucial away game such as this.
#2 Marcelinho lucky to stay on the field
When in rhythm and cutting open defences with his skill, Marcelinho is a treat to watch. When he gets petulant, he is anything but. Not once, but twice in the first half, the Brazilian lunged into a dangerous two-footed challenge, fully off the ground.
In fact, it's tough to call them challenges because he was never close to winning the ball on either occasion, the act born more out of frustration than an actual inkling to tackle. Both of them certainly looked malicious.
Shockingly though, no action was taken on the Brazilian both times. The first, taking a lenient view, was definitely worthy of a yellow card, even a red perhaps. The second was most definitely a sending off - it was that bad. The referee at the time decided to play advantage to Mumbai as they had the ball.
It looked like he was going to come back and book Marcelinho at the next stoppage, but there was no card forthcoming, not even a yellow. Even if by themselves not worthy of a red, they merited two yellows which would have seen Marcelinho receive his marching orders.
Marcelinho was a very lucky to stay on the pitch and even luckier to avoid any sort of punishment.
#3 Plenty of smoke, but no fire
Pune came into this game on the back of an impressive 4-1 win away at ATK. Yet, they could only score once in this game from open play. Of course, a lot of credit has to go to Mumbai City's defence that kept Pune's attackers quiet on the night. Still, Pune probably could have done a bit better.
Despite not having many clear-cut goal-scoring chances, Pune actually managed to get into good positions quite a few times. At least on six or seven occasions, they got the ball out wide behind Mumbai's three-man backline and got good cutbacks into the box. However, no one got on the end of any of these cutbacks and crosses into the box and as a result not making the most of the opportunities.
They got the win in the end, but with some better execution, they could have perhaps come back into the game sooner.
#4 Mumbai have every right to feel hard done by the referee
The referee's whistle seemed to be exceedingly quick when it came to decisions in favour of Pune tonight, while Mumbai City were left looking for it on more than one occasion.
As mentioned earlier, Pune's Marcelinho went unpunished for two very rash tackles and ended up playing the whole 90 minutes. A dismissal could have easily swung the game in favour of Mumbai with them already up 1-0. Even a yellow could have forced Pune coach Ranko Popovic into changes.
Astonishingly, right after Marcelinho's second dangerous two-footed tackle, Sehnaj Singh was adjudged to have fouled Marcelinho outside the box and was booked for barely a brush.
In the second half, Pune received a penalty after Diego Carlos was brought down in the box and rightfully so. However, just prior to that Lucian Goian was clearly brought down as well during Mumbai's corner. Yet, they got nothing with the referee looking straight at it.
The usually measured Alexandre Guimaraes also seemed at the end of his wits with some of the calls made during this game.
#5 Alfaro to the rescue for Pune City
With four goals now in three matches, the Uruguayan has been on point. For much of the first half, Pune were contained by Mumbai City and were looking for inspiration from somewhere with Marcelinho also being off his game. Emiliano Alfaro was largely non-existent in the first 30 minutes, yet started coming into the game bit by bit.
He started making some more incisive runs in the second half to stretch the Mumbai defence and when Pune got the chance to level the score from the spot, it was he and not Marcelinho who took the crucial kick. He beat Amrinder Singh comfortably, sending him the wrong way to coolly slot the ball in the back of the net.
He wasn't done there. With time running out towards the end, Mumbai looked like the side more keen on going for the win. But in the second minute of added time, a long-ball out from defence from Jonatan Lucca saw Diego time his run perfectly and break the offside trap. For once Mumbai's defence was caught out and Diego passed the ball to his right where he found Alfaro who tapped the ball home to send the home crowd into euphoria.
Alfaro's been doing this all season -- missing for large parts of the game, but always around to net a goal. He delivered once more today for Popovic and Pune City.
