Nicolas Anelka opened his goal scoring account for Mumbai City FC as he scored a sublime free kick in the 44th minute which secured all three points for the home side.
Mumbai City: Paul, Mondal, Friedrich, Cmovs, Nabi, Letzelter, Stohanzl, Ralte, Moritz, Anelka, Subhash
Kerala Blasters: Nandy, Chettri, Hengbart, Falvey, Jhingan, Orji, Pearson, Ahmed, Gusmao, Hume, Sabeeth.
Overview:
The Blasters put on a brilliant performance but it was Mumbai who walked away with a victory after full time thanks to Nicolas Anelka's piece of magic.
Kerala who where on their fifth away day trip, where hard done by a well taken free kick from Premier league veteran. With both sides needing looking for three points, Mumbai where the one to come out with result.
Mumbai started the game well as they kept the ball to themselves and passed the ball around trying to build momentum early in the game. But as the game progressed Kerala came into the game as they charged down players and closed down the spaces as the pressure started building up Cmovs passed the all to Paul which was short with Hume trying to pick on the wrong pass.
Anelka looked sharp and had an eye for goal as the first chance of the game fell to French striker courtesy of pass by Moritz who looked sharp himself and tried to find pockets of spaces behind the defense. On the other side Kerala winger Gusmao gave the Mumbai defense a hard time.
At the end of first half, Mumbai City had a free kick about 25 yards away from the goal. Nicolas Anelka stood on the ball as he took a step back and blasted a fantastic free-kick back of the Kerala's net.
Perfection and years of practice as the goal helped the stadium go frenzy. One-Nil to Mumbai City Fc at half time.
The second half started on the same note, Mumbai continued from where they left. A early chance fell to Nicolas Anelka who saw the Kerala keeper off the line was saved in time. Kerala had their chances too as they wasted chance after chance to equalize.
But Mumbai were the team who played good football opened their opposition. With Brazilian Mortiz creating chances for his team mates for them only to put away from the goal.
Mumbai should have rapped up the game but poor finishing led to a tense last few minutes. But Mumbai managed to cling on to the lead as they climbed from bottom of the table to 5th place on the table with these three points.
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