ISL | Mumbai City edges past East Bengal

Mumbai City FC defeats East Bengal 3-2 in ISL match, securing fifth spot in standings.

Mumbai City FC halted East Bengal’s resurgence by downing the home favourite 3-2 in an ISL fixture at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Monday. Mumbai jumped to fifth spot in the standings with 23 points from 14 matches while East Bengal remained in the 11th position with 14 points from as many matches.

Mumbai got its act together to mount continuous pressure on a tentative home defence to secure a two-goal lead at half-time. The opening goal came off a nice diagonal pass from Brandon Fernandes in the 39th minute that found Lallianzuala Chhangte free on top of the East Bengal box. The Mumbai captain unleashed an angular grounder to find its way home.

Mumbai doubled the lead in the 43rd minute when its Greek forward Nikolaos Karelis found the net utilising an assist from the Dutch midfielder Yoell van Nieff.

East Bengal returned after the break as a much transformed side and pinned Mumbai back into defending with repeated assaults in its box. East Bengal pulled one back in the 66th minute when Mumbai defender Sahil Panwar deflected one into his won net. The host then found the equaliser in the 83rd minute as substitute David Lalhlansanga volleyed home an assist from Hector Yuste following a corner.

But Mumbai snatched the winner in the 87th minute through another fine effort from Karelis to secure the full quota of points.

The result: East Bengal 2 (Panwar 66-og, Lalhlansanga 83) lost to Mumbai City FC 3 (Chhangte 39, Karelis 43, 87).