Jerry Mawihmingthanga’s brace helps Odisha stun defending champions Mumbai City
Odisha returned to winning ways after a streak of four winless matches as they stunned the defending champions Mumbai City in ‘Match 48’ of the 2021-22 season of the Indian Super League. Aridai Cabrera, Jerry Mawihmingthanga, and Jonathas were on target for the Kalinga Warriors while Ahmed Jahouh and Igor Angulo scored for the Islanders.
Odisha head coach Kiko Ramirez had to come up with answers after his team’s humiliating 6-1 defeat against Hyderabad. He brought in Aridai Cabrera upfront and paired him with Javi Hernandez while Mawihmingthanga and Hendry Antonay were also given starts.
On the other hand, Mumbai City head coach Des Buckingham welcomed the return of Mourtada Fall in defense replacing Mehtab Singh while Raynier Fernandes and the fit-again Vignesh Dakshinamurthy replaced Ygor Catatau and Mandar Rao Dessai respectively.
An early mistake from Fall saw the ball land kindly into Aridai’s feet and though Mumbai’s custodian Mohammed Nawaz got both hands to his shot, it still somehow found its way to the back to the net handing Odisha the lead in the fourth minute of the game.
Despite an early setback, the league leaders retaliated with a stunning goal to restore parity in the game in the 11th minute thanks to a fantastic long-range curler from Jahouh.
Around the half-hour mark, Fernandes had a golden opportunity to head Mumbai City in the lead when he found himself through on goal but failed to get his connection right.
A few minutes later, Angulo showed Fernandes how it is done when he came up with a sublime header to hand the Islanders a well-deserved lead in the game. Jahouh turned from scorer to provider as his precise freekick found Angulo’s head and given the latter’s pedigree as a clinical striker. the Spaniard was not going to miss from such close range.
Like the first phase, the second half also had a vibrant start as Ramirez’s men were eager to take down the Islanders. Their perseverance almost paid dividends around the hour-mark, but left-back Sahil Panwar squandered a simple header from twelve yards, despite being unmarked in the penalty area.
However, Panwar did not have to rue the miss for long as Jerry brought things back to level pegging only six minutes later when he came up with a diving header to head home a perfectly floated Nandhakumar Sekar cross.
Seven minutes later, the Mizoram lad came up with a powerful strike that ripped the top corner of the net handing the Kalinga Warriors a crucial lead. Jerry’s effort left the Mumbai defenders and Nawaz shell-shocked as they did not expect the forward to pull the trigger from there.
Jonathas scored Odisha’s fourth goal of the night
In the 89th minute, Jerry turned provider and came up with a well-drilled low cross right across the face of the goal. Brazilian striker Jonathas might not be going through a purple patch but he made no mistake in guiding this particular cross to the back of the net thereby piling misery on the league leaders.
Though they are still holding the pole position in the standings, this result leaves Des Buckingham’s men with three consecutive matches without a win while they also have conceded as many as ten goals in these three encounters. They will now take on basement boys East Bengal on Friday while the seventh-placed Odisha side will lock horns with the rejuvenated ATK Mohun Bagan outfit on Saturday.