Amrinder Singh makes a save against Mumbai City FC in Fatorda.
ATK Mohun Bagan captain Pritam Kotal's own goal helped defending champions Mumbai City gain one point in the eighth Indian Super League (ISL) football tournament on Thursday. The match at Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda ended in a 1-1 draw.
After an exciting first eight minutes, Australian forward David Williams gave ATK Mohun Bagan the lead in the ninth minute. Islanders defender Ahmed Jahouh's extra touch led to him losing possession to Williams, who calmly scored the first goal.
Mumbai City FC soon crawled back into the game thanks to Mariners captain Pritam Kotal's blunder. Bipin Singh sent out a tantalising cross into the box, but Kotal's attempt to clear, deflected the ball to equalize for the Islanders.
The Mariners recovered with more intensity, as they created two crucial chances. Liston Colaco's free-kick set Williams for a diving header in the 36th minute. Then the second chance came three minutes later, where Islanders goalkeeper Mohamad Nawaz tackled Boumous outside the box, leaving the goal open. Colaco tried to finish, but Nawaz ran back to stop the attempt.
The second half saw countless half chances, but both teams failed to score the winning goal. With only one point each from the fixture, both teams couldn't make any progress on the points table. ATK Mohan Bagan has 20 points from 12 matches and remains fifth. Mumbai City FC is sixth with 19 points after 13 games.
Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham was pleased with the team's performance. He said, "I'm proud of the players, we've been locked in our rooms four days before the NorthEast United FC match and all the way through till now. We're doing limited training. I'm very proud of the work that they've done. We tried enough to win the game, but it wasn't to be. But we have to get ready, now for the next one."
"I've always said judge us at the end of the season, it's not important where you are now. We're still in a decent space. If you look at the points table, where we sit with teams with seven games to play, it's important that we finish well. We’re still in a good position to finish as high as we can."
ATK Mohan Bagan head coach Juan Ferrando expressed his elation with his team's performance. He opined, "In the end, for me, I had a lot of triumphs. We had chances to get three points, but we didn’t get them, which is a problem. The own-goal is okay, but we had a lot of chances to win the game."