Hyderabad FC topple Mumbai City

Hyderabad: Hyderabad FC put on a stellar performance crushing Mumbai City FC 5-0 in the Reliance Foundation Development League at the Nagoa Panchayat Ground in Goa on Wednesday.

Joseph Sunny (12’), Koustav Dutta (14’, Pen), Abijith PA (19’), Crespo Vanlalhriatpuia (88’) and Bishnu Bordoloi (90’) were all on the scoresheet for Shameel Chembakath’s boys, who now have seven points after five games, and are now joint third in the standings. Hyderabad started off in dominating fashion and carved out couple of early chances, but it was Joseph Sunny who latched onto a loose ball inside the box to fire home and give his side an early lead in the game.

Mumbai failed to find a foothold in the game as Abijith won a penalty that was coolly dispatched away by Koustav Dutta not long later. And it soon turned 3-0 after Joseph set it up on a plate for Abijith, who made no mistake from six yards out, in just the 19th minute. Mumbai had a couple of decent attacks but never really troubled Lalbiakhlua Jongte on goal as HFC went into the break three goals to the good. And they came out strongly for the second half as well and constantly pushed Mumbai City back in their half, creating plenty of opportunities. But it was a superb solo effort from Crespo, who made it 4-0 two minutes from time.

Crespo won the ball back at the edge of the box, beat a couple of defenders to cut inside and finish with plomb. But Hyderabad were not done yet as Mark Zothanpuia turned creator in the 90th minute. The midfielder put in a delicious ball that was duly converted by Bishnu, who scored his second of the campaign to make it 5-0 to HFC. Lalrintluanga Chhangte and Abdul Rabeeh both hit the post as Hyderabad were dominant for most of the game. But they needed a heroic block from Muhammed Rafi late in the game to keep their clean sheet intact. This was the first clean sheet for HFC in the league campaign as they registered a stellar victory over Mumbai City. Incidentally, this is the joint-biggest margin of victory in the RFDL this season and move up to third in the league table, after five games.