Mumbai's touch of class downs Pune

Mumbai City FC (MCFC) took the bragging rights in the first Maharashtra derby of the Indian Super League (ISL) season, as a Matias Defederico strike in the 68th minute took them to a 1-0 win over FC Pune City (FCPC) at the latter's home ground in Balewadi, Pune on Monday.

MCFC, who had not registered a single win in their first 13 away games in the history of the ISL, now have two wins on the trot, having beaten Atletico de Kolkata 3-2 away in Kolkata in their last ISL match on December 4, 2015.

FCPC, who were missing their new coach Antonio Lopez Habas from the touchline owing to a four-match suspension from the second season, began with an aggressive 4-2-3-1 formation, where former Barcelona youth product Tato played ahead of FIFA Under-20 World Cup winning Argentine Gustavo Oberman and Arata Izumi, while MCFC kept a compact five-man midfield with marquee player Diego Forlan operating as the lone striker.

The early exchanges were understandably cautious, and the first adventurous move came only in the eighth minute when MCFC left-back Lalhmangaihsanga Ralte controlled the ball and slipped it through to Defederico, and the Argentine midfielder found Hungarian midfielder Krisztian Vadocz inside the box, who earned the visitors their first corner of the match.

FCPC would then control the tempo of the match for the next few minutes - first Arata Izumi rose to meet a cross from the right by Jonatan Lucca in the 10th minute, but could only manage a feeble header since he was off-balance. Three minutes later, Tato would be brought down by Romanian centre-back Lucian Goian, and Lucca's resultant free-kick was deemed to be handled by Leo Costa, earning the Brazilian midfielder a yellow card. Lucca would soon receive a free ball thanks to some indifferent defending from MCFC, but his shot was straight at goalkeeper Roberto Tigrao. In the 16th minute, Lucca released a sublime long ball for Oberman into space on the right, and the Argentine's cross was attacked by Tato, but cleared to safety by Anwar.

Mumbai then had a couple of bright moments at the other end of the pitch, first with a speculative effort from Pronay Halder in the 22nd minute that was comfortably collected by Edel Bete in the FCPC goal, and then Goian's header off a corner which didn't miss the target by a lot in the 30th minute. The hosts had their best chance in the 38th minute, when Oberman sprung the offside trap and brought himself one-on-one with Roberto, but the Brazilian goalkeeper would come well out of his line and absorb the shot on his body. MCFC would finish the half on a high, with Forlan slipping a low ball through for Costa who should have hit it first time, but Gouramangi Singh's well timed tackle kept it 0-0 at half-time.

FCPC brought in Senegalese striker Momar Ndoye to start the second half in place of Oberman, but the first real chance to put pressure on the opposition fell to Ralte, when he cut in from the left and eliminated two defenders but sent his right-footed strike just wide. Ralte would soon save the day in defence, putting in a timely header in the 64th minute to deny a chance for FCPC to attack a cross from Ndoye.

In the 68th minute, Aiborlang Khongjee put in an energetic run for MCPC from the right flank, and his cross was flicked on by Forlan, before Defederico picked up the ball and released a powerful shot low to the corner of Edel Bete's post to give MCPC the lead.

The home side had two golden opportunities to open their account, with Tato at the receiving end of some slick passing from the FCPC midfield in general, and Lucca in particular. First in the 73rd minute, he got in from the right flank and beat his marker, but chose to go for the near post beside Roberto, who palmed the ball away to safety. Eight minutes later, he would spring the offside trap again, and could have released the ball for an unmarked Ndoye, but chose to go for goal instead, shooting straight at Roberto.

MCPC brought on former Pune man Jackichand Singh with only stoppage time remaining, and the India international pounced on a ball inside the box to shoot at Edel Bete from an acute angle, which forced the Armenian to send the ball out for a corner. A few minutes later, Vadocz would unleash a long-ranger which also had Bete scrambling, before he tipped the ball over to keep the away team away.

The match ended in Mumbai's favour eventually with two moments of quality from South Americans Forlan and Defederico being the only difference between the two sides. FCPC and MCFC, two of only three teams to have never made the playoffs in the past two seasons of the ISL, also met in the corresponding fixture to begin their 2015 campaign, when the home side ran out 3-1 winners with two goals by Tuncay Sanli.