Mumbai City FC and Hyderabad FC toil for a goalless draw

Mumbai Ciry FC-Hyderabad FC

The match tonight between Mumbai City FC and Hyderabad FC ended in a goalless draw. Hyderabad FC finally ended Mumbai City FC’s winning streak in the 60th Match of the Hero Indian Super League at the GMC Stadium, Bambolim. The last time they met, the Islanders had overpowered the Nizams 2-0, but today’s encounter saw no goals scored at all.

Both teams came in with good form as Hyderabad FC won their last couple of matches while league toppers Mumbai City FC had won their last four matches. Interestingly, the Nizams had scored 4 goals in those last two games they had won, but today it was not to be.

Mumbai City FC led the charge at the beginning of the game as they had about 60 per cent possession in the first 10 minutes of the match. They enjoyed a good build-up play from deep within their half. The team attacked down the left flank but the cross failed to find Bipin Singh in the box who mistimed his shot and a good chance went away for a goal kick. Mourtada Fall narrowly escaped a card as his sliding tackle on Mohammad Yasir seemed harsh about 22 minutes into the game.

In the 27th minute, Hyderabad FC’s Liston Colaco somehow managed to send the ball to Hitesh Sharma who ran in and took a long-range shot. However, the attempt was poor and off-target. Both the teams kept creating these half chances but failed to convert these into goals. Liston Colaco kept threatening the goal as a couple of minutes later, he cut in from the opposite flank and had a try at the goal but goalkeeper Amrinder Singh collected it after a fumble. 

Almost immediately after the first Cooling break, Amrinder Singh was again in action as he pulled off a top save to deny Joel Chianese‘s brilliant shot. Chianese found himself in a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper from a beautiful lobbed pass by Mohammed Yasir and it probably would’ve been a goal any other day but today it was Amrinder Singh to the rescue. He spread himself wide and saved the ball with his feet in a superb display of world-class goalkeeping.

Since then, Hyderabad FC seemed threatening and even at the start of the second half, they kept building pressure on the Mumbai City FC defence. But the teams kept on playing toe to toe and didn’t let the other capitalise on their chances. Both the managers kept making changes in a desperate attempt to break the deadlock but for no avail. The game turned even more aggressive as it ticked over the 80-minute mark and it was foul upon foul at the GMC Stadium.

An additional 5 minutes were added as injury time after the regulation 90s but there was no winning goal tonight. Both the teams had no answer to the others’ defence and it ended goallessly. After a pretty evenly matched first half, Hyderabad FC seemed like the more dangerous team in the second half of the game but they couldn’t score against Amrinder Singh who kept pulling brilliant saves even after a couple of fumbles here and there. 

Hero of the Match: Hitesh Sharma

The Club Award was shared between the two teams as the match was drawn, and Hyderabad FC midfielder Hitesh Sharma won the Hero of the Match award for his exceptional performance today. The DHL Winning Pass of the Match went to Mohammed Yasir for his crafty assists.

Both teams should be pleased with their efforts even though they had to share a point each. It was only the second time that the Islanders had failed to score in a game. As they are comfortably placed in the top of the league, a draw wouldn’t hurt their rankings, but they would want to gain back their winning momentum when they face SC East Bengal in the 22nd of January. The Nizams too would want to keep their unbeaten run going as they face Odisha FC on the 19th of January.