Delhi Dynamos kept their hopes alive of making it to the top four in the inaugural season of Indian Super League (ISL) as they outclassed Mumbai City FC 4-1 on Friday at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in New Delhi to move up to fifth spot on the points table, just two points behind Kerala Blasters, who are in the fourth.
Goals from Hans Mulder, Mads Junker, Gustavo dos Santos and last minute strike from substitute Manish Bhargav were enough to give the side from the capital city their second successive win. On the other hand Mumbai City will go home with a plate of worries as they find themselves last on the points table.
With Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium more than half empty, match started in a pretty slow fashion with both the teams looking to seize the early initiative in the mid-field.
But as the match progressed Delhi Dynamos got their noses ahead by piling on the pressure which led to the first opening of the match. Mumbai City's Manuel Friedrich gave the ball away in the middle and Delhi counterattacked through their star midfileder Hans Mulder - who found Dos Santos on the right but the cross was well defended by Syed Nabi.
While Delhi dominated the possession early on Mumbai were mostly playing the waiting game which invited more trouble for the visitors as Delhi almost made them pay in the twelfth minute. Striker Mads Junker put the ball past Subrata Paul in the goal after receiving a lovely through ball from Francis but Mumbai's Deepak Mondal was up to the mark by clearing the ball from the goal-line.
Another key moment of the match came in the 18th minute when Munmun Lugun slipped a brilliant ball towards Francis, who was free on the left but his cross was not intervened by any of his teammate and was cleared off the far post easily by the defender. As the half went by neither teams were willing to take risk and were happy trying to defend their own den.
When the crowd was getting restless, Delhi Dynamos gave them something to cheer about as in the 44th minute Mulder scored from point blank range to give them a deserving lead. Dinis went wide on the right after receiving a pass from Mulder and put a hopeful ball in across the face of the goal and a poor clearance from Tiago only gave it straight to Mulder who smashed it in with ease.
Delhi almost doubled their lead through Junkers in the added time of the first half but his shot was well saved by Subrata Paul and teams went into break with home team leading 1-0. Hoping to turn things around Mumbai City made two changes at half-time with Javi Fernández and Nadong Bhutia replacing Fredrik Ljungberg and Lalrindika Ralte.
The second half started in a fantastic manner as Delhi doubled their advantage through Mads Junker in the 50th minute. Dos Santos was the man behind the attack as his pass split the defence into two halves like the precision of a surgeon and the Netherlands player rolled it past Paul to make it 2-0. Despite leading comfortably, Delhi Dynamos looked for more goals and kept on attacking continuously.
In the 55th minute, Dos Santos made a brilliant run from the right flank and skipped past Friedrich easily but his shot was carried away by the keeper but he finally found the back of net few minutes later. The Brazilian started the move and kept his composure to finish it as well. He picked up Francis on the right who put in a perfect cross and Dos Santos headed it perfectly to put the result beyond Mumbai City's reach.
With the match almost over, Mumbai City gave their fans something to take back home as Abhishek Yadav scored in the 86th minute but no real celebrations happened in Mumbai camp as the match was all but over. Manish Bhargav rounded things off in style for Delhi as he got his name in the scorebook also by scoring the fourth goal in injury time. Delhi Dynamos will take on Atletico de Kolkata in their next match while Mumbai City will face FC Pune City in Maharashtra Derby.
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