Ahmed Jahouh and Igor Angulo scored for Mumbai City FC while goals from Aridai Cabrera, Jerry and Jonathas de Jesus sealed the win for Odisha FC.
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Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham felt his side needed “to be better as a collective” after their 4-2 loss to Odisha FC in the Indian Super League (ISL) fixture at the Tilak Maidan on Monday. The Islanders went into the break with a 2-1 lead courtesy of goals from Ahmed Jahouh and Igor Angulo after Aridai Cabrera had opened the scoring for Odisha FC. But after the restart, a double from Jerry and a late goal from Jonathas de Jesus sealed OFC’s victory against the league leaders.
Monday Motivation coming through…?
Now where have we seen this scoreline before ?
Enjoy the win guys ?#OdishaFC #AmaTeamAmaGame #ANewDawn #OFCMCFC pic.twitter.com/vGI6dgu5ND
— Odisha FC (@OdishaFC) January 3, 2022
Buckingham’s side had a very good first half, although they conceded an early goal, the Islanders dominated the opening 45 minutes. Mumbai City were passing the ball quickly and the midfielders were able to deliver attacking passes regularly.
Jahouh had an excellent game in the middle of the park as he canceled out Cabrera’s opener with a stunning curler from outside the box before providing the assist for Angulo to make the score 2-1 for MCFC.
Buckingham said after the match “I think in the first half we were exceptional. I think we played some extremely good football to go 2-1 up, and I felt we should have been more. We played some really good attacking football, how we want to play, and we defended extremely well and that didn’t continue in the second half. “
“And that’s something disappointing not just for me, but for the team. And that’s something that we need to address to go into the next game against SC East Bengal.”
After the restart, OFC didn’t allow the MCFC midfielders too much space and used their wingers Jerry and Nandhakumer very well. Jerry had an exceptional game, scoring twice (70’, 77’) and registering an assist. Meanwhile MCFC’s defense has been very leaky, conceding 10 goals in their last three games.
The English coach added “We will win games one-nil or five-four, but it’s important the football we played in the first half. That’s how we want to play, and it’s important that we try and play that over the 90 minute period and not a 45 minute one. And if we can start doing that and showing signs of that throughout the season, I’ll be very pleased, but we again need to make sure that we defend a lot better than we have this evening.”
Odisha FC’s wingers were given too much space and time in the second half and they exploited that pretty well. The likes of Jerry and Nandhakumer making the inside runs quite often and the Mumbai defence didn’t handle them very well and were made to pay for it.
The 36-year-old continued “I think it was a different type of game, they’ve had four shots on target and have scored all four goals. So the last couple of games have been (because of) transitional moments. Whereas tonight for me, it was more mistakes where we’ve offered opportunities on our goal.”
Despite the loss MCFC still sit on top of the table with 16 points from 9 games, but Hyderabad FC, Kerala Blasters Fc and ATK Mohun Bagan can all go top with victories in their next match. Meanwhile OFC remain at the seventh spot with 13 points just one behind fourth-placed ATKMB.
