ISL 2016: Mumbai City FC 2-0 Chennaiyin: 5 talking points
Mumbai danced their way to a 2-0 win at home over Chennaiyin FC, courtesy goals from Matias Defederico and Krisztian Vadocz. The win also helped Mumbai become the first team to seal a semifinal spot in this year's Indian Super League. Playing at the Mumbai Football Arena, the home team were clearly the better team from the start and their win was well deserved.
We pore over a few things that we learnt from this game.
#1 What a turnaround for Mumbai it has been
Mumbai City FC were amongst the worst sides in the first two seasons of the ISL. They finished with 16 points in both seasons and were at the receiving end of quite a few heavy defeats especially against their opponents today, Chennaiyin FC. Before this season, they had lost all four games against Chennaiyin and had not even scored a goal in their home fixture.
This year, they've gone undefeated against them, showing the character to grab a late equaliser away at Chennai and now registering a comfortable home win against them.
A lot of credit must be given to the management for putting together a very good squad of players as well as picking a very astute head coach, both of the moves having paid off hugely.
Having not even been close to having a sniff of the playoffs previously to being the first to qualify this year, in the most competitive of seasons yet, is worthy of appreciation. The improvement has been significant to the extent that they look a good bet to go all the way and claim the title.