Mumbai City FC and East Bengal FC play out 0-0 draw

Mumbai City FC were held to a goalless draw by East Bengal FC in the Indian Super League here on Friday. East Bengal have moved to 10th in table with 18 points from as many games as a consequence of this result. The Islanders, on the other hand, played their seventh draw of the season and are positioned sixth with 28 points from 18 matches, as they were unable to find a breakthrough despite holding 62.4% of the possession in the game.

East Bengal FC picked up pace earlier on as their entire frontline functioned in tandem to slice open the Mumbai City FC defence in the 14th minute. Dimitrios Diamantakos drew bodies towards him down the centre, before he sensed space in front of Naorem Mahesh Singh on the left flank and laid a pass for him.

Mahesh showed some quick footwork before launching in a low cross for Nandhakumar Sekar on the far post. Nandhakumar took a good first touch but his shot from an acute angle was thwarted by Phurba Lachenpa on the bottom right corner. Diamantakos was again in the centre of focus in the 44th minute, as he missed hitting the target from touchingly close distance facing the centre of the goal.

Two minutes later, as Mumbai City FC looked to regain their lost shape, Diamantakos pressed high to recover the ball outside the box from Jon Toral. He not only broke their process of building up the offence from the back, but launched a seething shot that rebounded off the left post, resulting in the visitors’ closest opportunity thus far of finding the back of the net.

Vikram Partap Singh had a brilliant chance to break the deadlock four minutes into the second essay of the game. Mumbai City FC outnumbered East Bengal FC in the attacking third and Bipin Singh brought down a cross from the left post for Vikram. The attacker couldn’t sort his feet though as he lost his balance, missing to hit the goal from merely a couple of yards away as the two teams split the point. (PTI)