The visitors were wasteful with their opportunities and were made to pay dearly with Sanli leading the charge for Platt’s side.
David Platt’s sojourn in the Indian Super League (ISL) with Deccan side FC Pune City began with a 3-1 win over Nicolas Anelka’s Mumbai City FC. Tuncay Sanli (12′) opened the scoring before Frederic Piquionne (34′) levelled proceedings. Sanli (56′) got his second after the break which was followed by a third for the hosts courtesy of Israil Gurung (68′).
The English coach sprung a few surprises by electing to field a 4-5-1 formation without some of his Indian stalwarts who are away on international duty. Steve Simonsen started in goal, whilst Gouramangi Singh and Diego Colotto began in central defense. The veritable Nicky Shorey began on the left wing.
The attack, bereft of Adrian Mutu, on the bench for the start of the campaign, was led by Tuncay Sanli alongside Israil Gurung and Maithani on the wings.
Anelka started Ashutosh Mehta, Pavel Cmovs , Juan Aguilera and Keegan Pereira started in defence with the goalkeeper on the night being Albino Gomes. Sony Norde helmed the attack while accompanied by Andre Moritz and Fredrick Piquionne.
Good work by Piquione down the right early on in the game saw him cut a ball across for Gabriel Fernandes in the middle. The Goan midfielder however could do no better than warm the keeper’s gloves with a shot straight at him.
Sanli popped up with the goal to settle Pune City down in the 11th minute. A dominant Mumbai dozed off at the back and allowed Gurung too much space. The winger delivered the ball to the back post where Sanli made no mistake with the header.
Mumbai sought an immediate reply and nearly had one. Norde effortlessly shanked past his defender and was clear down the left side of the box. However, instead of passing to his teammate who was unmarked, he opted to shoot and only managed to have his effort blocked.
Norde was a handful and the Haitian repeatedly kept fizzing shots from outside the box towards goal, one which was particularly difficult for Simonsen to handle.
Fernandes was causing all sorts of problems for Gurjinder and the Goan once again managed to wriggle himself free of the defender’s grasp. His ball in was acute, but Diego Colotto somehow managed to get back in time.
A great run down the right by Gabriel was followed by a cross that found itself all the way to Norde at the far post. The attacker, with an empty net to aim at, managed to crash his shot against the post.
However, Mumbai maintained possession and Ashutosh delivered a sublime cross onto head of Fredrick Piquione who finished into the bottom corner as Anelka’s men drew level.
Chances were coming fast for the Blues, with Gabriel blasting a great counter wide and Juan Aguilera soon missed an opportunity to head Mumbai into the lead as Ashutosh Mehta’s dink to the Spaniard was hit straight to an alert Simonsen.
A superb cross into the box saw Piquine grapple for it, inadvertently setting up Norde for a shot he should’ve had on target, yet the Mohun Bagan forward blasted it over and the teams went into the break level at 1-1.
Yendrick Ruiz was brought on at the start of the second half in place of James Bailey.
Moritz then had a great chance to double Mumbai’s lead but he blasted the ball wide. He would go onto regret it as the Orange and Purples scored again.
It was the Gurung-Sanli combination for a second time as a sumptuous cross from the right found its way to the far post where the forward headed in again.
On the hour mark, goal scorer Sanli was withdrawn for marquee player Mutu. Minutes later, Moritz who looked to have a match he was likely to forget, was replaced by Selim Benachour .
Norde wasted a free-kick with a poor delivery which was won by Mehta down the right.
A fairly speculative cross by Gurung in the 68th minute took a massive deflection off Juan Aguilera and the ball looped past the outstretched hands of Gomes to plonk itself in the corner of the net to give Pune a 3-1 lead.
A last-ditch interception by the captain on the night for Mumbai City, Bertin, certainly prevented the score-line from getting embarrassing for the away side as Ruiz was on hand to convert.
The team from the commercial capital then threw on Nicolas Anelka as a last resort.
The 8734 strong crowd were stunned however when Lenny Rodrigues limped off with a suspected hamstring injury. Sushanth Mathew, a former Blaster took his place. Anelka was dropping deep as his side sought a way back intpo the game, but the creative had evaporated. Mumbai gained a series of corners as the referee indicated four minutes. Gurung too went down with suspected cramps as he had to be stretchered off.
The game however was closed down effectively by Pune City as the home team recorded their second straight Maha Derby victory.
