- Eduardo Soares - 71'
- Emiliano Alfaro - 79'
- Nirmal Chettri - 36'
NorthEast United go top after first away win
NorthEast United climbed to the top of the ISL 2016 table, with their Uruguayan striker Emiliano Alfaro scoring a 79th minute goal to spur them to their first away win in the ISL against FC Pune City, at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune on Wednesday. The match also witnessed two red cards, with NorthEast's Nirmal Chhetri being sent off in the first half and Pune City's Eduardo getting a second yellow in the 71st minute.
Pune, whose head coach Antonio Habas was missing from the bench for the third successive match this season, made three changes from the team that had won 2-1 away to FC Goa, with Zodingliana Ralte, Francis Fernandes and Lenny Rodrigues replacing Raju Yumnam, Rahul Bheke and Arata Izumi. NorthEast head coach Nelo Vingada also effected as many changes, bringing in new full-backs in Chhetri and Shouvik Ghosh, and also reinstating Holicharan Narzary in place of Seityasen Singh.
Pune's strategy of the day seemed to be to operate more through the width of the pitch, with a back-three supporting Lenny on the right and Ralte on the left. Within the first five minutes, Pune were given a free kick when Shouvik was deemed to have fouled Francis in the process of going up for a header. The resultant set-piece was curled in towards goal by Jonatan Lucca, but Subrata Pal in goal made a comfortable save.
NorthEast would get their first look at goal in the 13th minute, when Nicolas Velez chested the ball down at the edge of the Pune penalty box with his back to the goal, and Romaric's speculative effort sailed high over the bar. Four minutes later, Pune would lose possession in the middle of the pitch, and it allowed Velez to receive a ball from the right, which he couldn't connect very well with yet extracted a block from Francis. Within a minute, Tato would take Pal on at the other end, though his piledriver from 30 yards would just go over the bar.
NorthEast then created the most attractive sequence of play a minute later, with Alfaro laying the ball wide to Katsumi Yusa, who held the ball up for Narzary to cross, but Romaric couldn't keep his header on target.
In the 22nd minute, Lenny's industrious steal and run down the right allowed Pune to win a corner, and Sissoko rose to meet the Anibal set-piece but failed to keep it on target. In the 30th minute, a pinpoint cross from the right by Velez beat Dharmaraj Ravanan in defence, but Alfaro found himself inches away from meeting it.
The first 30 minutes had already been a bruising encounter in its own right, with the referee handing out yellow cards to Velez, Eduardo and Tato. The first balance of power appeared to shift towards the hosts when Chhetri saw a straight red in the 36th minute for lunging in late and catching Anibal's ankle. The next chance fell to the visitors, though, as a Romaric free kick in the 40th minute was met by a low crouching Alfaro header, which required Edel Bete to scramble away to his right to save the day for Pune.
The second half began with Pune making their intentions clear, replacing Gouramangi Singh with Arata Izumi, while NorthEast responded tactically with Katsumi dropping deeper to help out the defence. Despite their resolute defence, the first attempt fell to Lucca in the 51st minute, but his shot was well collected by Pal. A minute later, Alfaro would create space for Velez with a bustling run through the centre of the field, but the Argentine set himself up for a cross but only found Edel with his attempt.
In the 56th minute, Romaric opted to take on the Pune defence with a run from the centre-line, and fired a shot from the edge of the box which Edel collected low down to his left. NorthEast created another fruitful passage of play in the 61st minute, with Romaric sending a through pass for Alfaro, who held the ball up long enough for Velez to get into a good shooting position, but the Argentine failed to keep his first-time shot on target.
Pune kept pressing forward, and Arata came close with a header in the 67th minute, and Lucca tested Pal out with a grounded shot two minutes later. However, the hosts were reduced to ten men too when Eduardo received his second yellow of the match in the 71st minute.
Alfaro's persistence up front was rewarded in the 79th minute, when he got into the box with Velez out on the right and Katsumi to his left. Velez held the ball up to buy the Uruguayan striker some time near the Pune goal, and then Alfaro put the ball to Katsumi and made a surge towards Edel. He was quickest to react when Katsumi sent a low cross in, scoring his third goal of the season in the process.
In the 83rd minute, Tato made a swift run down the left and turned the ball in for substitute Dramane Traore, but he made a poor connection with the non-kicking foot, winning a corner in the process. From the resultant ball, Tato would take a volley from the edge of the box but send it wide.
NorthEast had a chance to finish the contest off in the 86th minute, when Romaric set off on a run with Alfaro to his left and Velez free on the right. He chose to go for the latter, who then fired a low shot towards the near post of Edel, who pulled off a good save.
In the first minute of added time, Tato made another great run from the left, and his cross was initially spilled by Pal, but his defensive partners did well to clear the lines. In fact, from the counterattack, Romaric came close to scoring, but was denied by Edel again. In the dying seconds, NorthEast stood firm in the face of some relentless attacks from the home side to register their third clean sheet of the season, and their first win on the road for ISL 2016.
Both matches hosted by Pune City against NorthEast United in the previous two seasons were won by the home side by a 1-0 margin.
Game Information
- Referees:
- Fernando Guerrero Ramírez
Indian Super League News