Jamshedpur leaves it late to win the match against Mumbai City
Greg Stewart’s brace helped Jamshedpur win all three points in ‘Match 67’ of the 2021-22 Indian Super League season in a must-win encounter for both teams as Mumbai City lost ground in the playoff race.
The match between Jamshedpur and Mumbai City was originally scheduled for the 21st of January 2022 but had to be rescheduled due to increasing covid cases in the Jamshedpur camp. Owen Coyle’s men strengthened their case for a spot in the top four with this dramatic win against Mumbai and with the fixtures coming up thick and fast, the race for playoff places is heating up as well.
Both Jamshedpur head coach Owen Coyle and Mumbai City head coach Des Buckingham decided to field an unchanged XI from their previous encounter and both the teams started the match with a 4-2-3-1 formation with a very different approach to progress the ball into the opposition area.
While Mumbai City loves to pass it around and have possession of the ball, Jamshedpur is a bit direct in their approach and likes to get their number nine involved at every possible opportunity.
Jamshedpur was on the front foot from the very start and they could have scored in the very first minute of the match but Boris Singh’s header rattled the crossbar after a beautiful delivery from Ricky Lallawmawa from the left flank.
The Islanders slowly started to get into the thick of things as they started keeping possession of the ball but Jamshedpur players were pressing hard and trying to hit them on the counter.
Jamshedpur created a beautiful move and opened the scoring in the 9th minute of the match. It all started with a throw-in as Jitendra Singh squared it to Boris outside the box who helped it along to Ritwik inside the box and a clever back flick by Ritwik found Stewart who found the bottom right corner of the net.
TP Rehnesh makes a brilliant save to keep his side in the game
Mumbai City was in control of the ball for the majority of the match while the Jamshedpur contingent looked content without the ball defending the long-balls coming into their penalty area. TP Rehenesh’s heroics in the 26th minute helped Jamshedpur keep their lead intact and they went on to double their lead in the 30th minute of the match.
Another throw-in did the damage as a long throw from the right side sent Brois Singh away and the midfielder dribbled into the box delivering a low cross from the edge of the line to Ritwik who tapped the ball into the back of the net.
Buckingham’s men started to push for a goal but went into the half-time break two goals down and coming from two goals behind against one of the best defense in the league was not going to be easy.
The team from Mumbai started on the front foot and got a goal back in the 57th minute of the match. Igor Angulo was through on goal but his shot was saved by Rehenesh and the rebound fell kindly to Rahul Bheke on the right who slotted it into an open net.
Mumbai had a great opportunity to equalize in the 69th minute as they were awarded a penalty but the brilliance of Rehenesh denied them twice as the goalkeeper saved Igor Angulo’s spot-kick and then saved the rebound shot as well.
The Red Miners managed to keep their lead intact for another 17 minutes but another error by Peter Hartley gifted Mumbai a penalty and one more chance to equalize. Substitute Diego Mauricio stepped up to take the penalty and slotted it home straight down the middle to get Mumbai level on 2-2.
There was still a lot of drama to follow as 5 minutes were added by the fourth referee. A sloppy error by Mehtab Singh gifted Coyle’s men a penalty towards the very end of the added time. Stewart stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way to win the match for his team for the umpteenth time in the ongoing ISL season.
Jamshedpur will now face Chennaiyin on Sunday whilst Mumbai City will be back in action on Tuesday against East Bengal in the hope of bouncing back from the defeat on Thursday.