Mumbai City FC 5-0 FC Pune City: 5 talking points
While FC Mumbai City came back home to the DY Patil Stadium after a stinging 3-0 loss to Atletico De Kolkata, FC Pune City came for their next away game after a goalless draw against the Delhi Dynamos. Dubbed the Maharashtra Derby, it was slated to be a battle of equals for the two teams. Little did the visiting team realise that it was to be hugely different. Mumbai went on to thrash Pune 5-0, which also saw the first hat-trick of the Indian Super League being scored at the DY Patil stadium on Saturday.While the chinks in Pune's armour were exploited to the hilt by Mumbai, Pune failed to capitalise on chances thereby leading to the debacle. Here are the talking points of the game.
#1 Andre Moritz was the showstopper
Save for the opening ten minutes of the game where FC Pune City created chances and tested the back line of FC Mumbai City, there was little cheer for them. The primary reason for that being Brazilian Andre Moritz, who hammered in two goals in the first half and one in the second. His goals came in the 12th, 27th and 71st minutes of the game.
While the first was a beauty born out of a counter-attack, the second saw him being opportunistic at a corner, and the last one was a lovely dribble through the Pune defence to drill past the hapless Emanuele Bellardi.
It was understandable that the Brazilian was given his first start of the season, after having shown spark after coming on as a substitute against Kolkata in the opening game of the ISL. He was ably supported by Lalrindika ‘Didika’ Ralte and Subhash Singh. Moritz was eventually substituted in the 81st minute after having sealed off the victory for his team.