Mumbai: Nikolaos Karelis struck an early goal to steer Mumbai City FC to a lone-goal win against Chennaiyin FC in the Indian Super League (ISL) 2024-25 match played at the Mumbai Football Arena (MFA) here on Saturday. The Islanders thus secured their fourth consecutive clean sheet in the competition, and moved from the seventh place to the fourth spot in the points table, accumulating 20 points from 12 games with five victories and draws each.
On the other hand, this match marked the third straight away game in which the Marina Machans were unable to find the back of the net.
Mumbai City FC dominated proceedings from the onset, pushing numbers ahead and employing a variety of options to dissect the Chennaiyin FC defence. Lallianzuala Chhangte came inwards on the centre to play a short pass to Yoell van Nieff, who took the onus and stormed down the middle to launch a shot from the outside of the box.
However, The shot was not intercepted in time by Ryan Edwards and Nikolaos Karelis took control of the loose ball and unleashed a left-foot effort to slot it into the bottom right corner in the eighth minute of the match.
Six minutes later, Karelis was again at the centre of the action, spearheading an offensive move and setting up the final delivery for Vikram Partap Singh, which the latter shot off target on the left side. Just before the 20th-minute mark, Lukas Brambilla tried to pull one back for the Marina Machans, interlinking with Kiyan Nassiri and receiving the ball at the left side of the 18-yard box. Brambilla’s shot was saved by Mumbai City FC goalkeeper TP Rehenesh.
Brambilla stayed on the hunt for a goal, taking a close-range shot in the 34th minute. He started the move on the inside channel of the left flank, passing it to Jitendra Singh, who relayed the ball back to the Brazilian. The attacker’s shot was blocked in time by Tiri, enabling the home team to stay afloat with their slender lead.
In their next match, Mumbai City FC play NorthEast United FC on December 30, whereas Chennaiyin FC will be playing Bengaluru FC on December 28. IANS
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