Match 72 of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) saw Khalid Jamil’s young and vibrant NorthEast United FC stun the Mariners at the Fatorda Stadium. Goals from Luis Machado and their trusted number 10 Federico Gallego ensured that the Highlanders got level on points with fourth-placed side, Hyderabad FC.
This was just the second time that the Mariners have conceded two goals this season as they have one of the meanest defences in the league. The loss of David Williams at half time due to a muscle injury changed the complexion of the game as Antonio Lopez Habas’ team were much better than the opponent in the first half. The Mariners have to quickly recover from this loss and look forward to their next match against Kerala Blasters FC on Sunday.
Here are the top Mariners from the match between Khalid Jamil’s NorthEast United FC and Habas’ ATK Mohun Bagan.
The Fiji striker got back to the scoring sheet as he equalised for the Mariners in this match. It was a typical Roy Krishna goal as he ran off the last defender and anticipated the through ball by Carl McHugh perfectly well. It was a tap in at the end but his run and the anticipation was spot on. Overall, he was easily the best Mariner on the pitch as he created some decent goalscoring opportunities as well in the first half.
One of the consistent performers of the season, Carl McHugh put in another decent shift in the match against NorthEast United FC. In the first half, he was quick to deliver some quality channel balls for Roy Krishna to run at and one of those led to a proper goalscoring opportunity. In the second half, he delivered the assist for Krishna’s goal and got his team back in the contest.
There’s no doubt that it was a clear foul on Tiri for NorthEast’s first goal of the match. The linesman also had his flag up but the on-field referee didn’t deem that contact worthy of a foul. Still, the Spanish centre-back put in a good performance in this match and apart from that error in the second half, it was a solid performance by Tiri..
The Emerging Player of the Season Award recipient from the 2019-20 season, Sumit Rathi hasn’t been given enough game time this season. This was one of the off-days where he got a start and that too at the left-back position which isn’t his favoured position. Nevertheless, he put in a decent performance at that position as well and had a tough task of handling the pace of Luis Machado. He has a lot of room for improvement but at the same time, did put up a decent display.
The scoreline suggests that this is only the second time in the season that Arindam has conceded two goals in this season but had it not been for him it could have been way worse. Arindam had some brilliant saves to make over the course of the 90 minutes and the two goals he conceded were pretty much unstoppable.
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