A confident Kerala Blasters and an adventurous Mumbai City FC are locked in a 0-0 draw in their Indian Super League 2019-20 clash at Kochi. Both teams created their chances—Mumbai early on and Blasters close to the end of the half—but both could not find the back of the net.
Mumbai was denied a penalty in just the 4th minute when Amine Chermiti was through on goal and Blasters centreback Gianni Zuiverloon shoved him in the back to send the striker tumbling down in the box. Chermiti made the most of it, but the defender was given the benefit of doubt.
Mumbai had the first clear chance in the 10th minute, when a long ball found Diego Carlos in space, whose deflected cross was headed just wide by a lurking Mohamed Larbi. Blasters had a good chance, too, in the 24th minute, when Sergio Cidoncha sent a cross floating into the box, only for Bartholomew Ogbeche to miss the target.
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Though things between the sides stayed mostly calm, play was held for a while when Croatian defender Mato Grgic stopped a counter attack by bringing down Halicharan Narzary in the 40th minute. Mumbai made an early double substitution in that time, bringing on their top scorer last season Modou Sougou for Paulo Machado and Pratik Chawdhary for the Grgic.
The resultant free kick near the halfway line found Blasters centre-back Jairo Rodrigues, whose header was pushed out by goalkeeper Amrinder Singh. Jairo was at it again when he headed the ball to the far post from the corner that followed, only for his teammate Mouhamadou Moustapha to be booked for using his hand to try and push the ball into the net.
This is Mumbai City FC’s first match of the season, while Kerala Blasters have already played their opening game against ATK, which they won 2-1. Blasters skipper Ogbeche scored both goals in that game, and much will be expected of him in the second half of this one, to deliver the same way. In the meantime, can Mumbai pull off the first big upset of the tournament? The men in blue will certainly hope so.
Lineups:
Kerala Blasters: Bilal Husain Khan (GK), Mohamad Rakip, Jairo Rodrigues, Jessel Carneiro, Gianni Zuiverloon, Jeakson Singh, Sergio Cidoncha, Halicharan Narzary, Prasanth Karuthadathkuni, Mouhamadou Gning, Bartholomew Ogbeche (C)
Mumbai City FC: Amrinder Singh (GK/C), Mato Grgic, Subhasish Bose, Sarthak Golui, Sauvik Chakrabarti, Paulo Machado, Raynier Fernandes, Rowllin Borges, Diego Carlos, Mohamed Larbi, Amine Chermiti