If ATK Mohun Bagan have reasons to be basking in their new-found domination over SC East Bengal in recent times, Antonio Lopez Habas’s side seems to have found in Mumbai City FC an adversary too good to be conquered.
Four days after crushing East Bengal, ATK Mohun Bagan faced a quick but astonishing reality check as Mumbai City FC blew them away 5-1 at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda on Wednesday.
Habas’s team was not just struck by post-derby blues. The ISL defending champions outpaced, outsmarted and outplayed ATK Mohun Bagan, who played the second half with a man down, in every department of the game in a breathtaking display of pressing and attacking game, handing Habas & Co their biggest defeat in ISL history.
Young Vikram Pratap Singh started the demolition job with a brace (4th and 25th minute) and Igor Angulo (38), Mourtada Fall (47) and Bipin Singh (52) joined the party in an exhibition of flamboyant, free-flowing football.
David William’s goal for the ISL runners-up on the hour mark was merely an aberration in the otherwise Mumbai FC-controlled flow of the game.
Reminiscent of their dramatic 0-6 loss to FC Nasaf in the AFC Cup semifinal playoff three months ago, ATK Bagan defence fell like ninepins, struggling to check the floodgates from the beginning. And just like the ISL-7 final, Mumbai City seized the momentum, forced Habas’s high-line strategy to fall flat and emerged a team possessed to get the better of their opponents.
Habas was aware that, unlike SC East Bengal, Mumbai City would offer his team a more difficult and demanding challenge, especially after the defending champions’ surprise loss to Hyderabad FC in the previous match.
And Des Buckingham’s side did respond to that setback with a vengeance. Habas’s players have been fluid and flamboyant in keeping their balance between attack and defence in the first two matches. However on Wednesday, Mumbai City first bettered the rivals in terms of possession and pressing game and then battered the opponents in a stunning fashion.
For the opening goal, Angulo released Bipin through down the left with a brilliant pass, catching a retreating ATK Bagan defence off guard. Bipin squared it across the face of the goal and Vikram did the needful beating the goalkeeper at the first post, although Amrinder should have done better in dealing with it.
The Bipin-Vikram combination rocked the rival defence again, although the goal was tinged with controversy. Amrinder blocked Vikram’s initial attempt, as the Mumbai player went sliding in to meet the rebound, TV replays showed the ball ricocheted off his arm before going in.
Despite ATK Bagan players’ protest, referee Srikrishna CR stood by his decision to award the goal in favour of the defending champions.
ATK Bagan rearguard fell asleep again when it failed to negotiate a Mandar Desai cross and an unmarked Angulo came up with a simple tap-in as the holders went into the break with a stunning 3-0 lead.
The fact that Roy Krishna and his teammates failed to have a single shot on target during this period told the story of how a clinically superb Mumbai side with a disciplined balance between offence and defence came out to pay the opponents in their own coin.
And any hopes for ATK Bagan’s comeback vanished in no time after the second half when Srikrishna flashed a straight red-card to Deepak Tangri for a high-boot challenge on Vikram and Fall headed home the team’s fourth goal off the resultant free-kick.
And it turned catastrophic for Habas’s team when Angulo came up with another defence-splitting pass and Vipin returned the favour beating Amrinder with a smashing strike.
When William, who replaced Hugo Boumous after the change of ends, pulled one back on the hour mark, it might have put the brakes on the goal flow from the opposite end but failed to stop ATK Bagan from suffering their biggest defeat in the tournament.