I-League: Mumbai share spoils with Chennai City

Mumbai FC played out a goalless stalemate against Chennai City FC in what was their most crucial match of the ongoing I-League here on Sunday.

Mumbai's new head coach Oscar Bruzon made three changes to the side which drew against Churchill Brothers. Thoi Singh made his return to the side after being sidelined for the past month, and he took his familiar position on the wings. Pratik Chowdhary returns to the side along with a front two of Karan Sawhney and Anderson Da Silva.

Chennai City FC lined up according to the script, with captain Dharmaraj Ravanan retaining his place in the side. Brazilian Charles De Souza and Soosai Raj started the match up front.

Mumbai FC started the match on the front foot, as Chennai City looked marooned in their own half during the opening 10 minutes, goalkeeper Laxmikant Kattimani almost outside his penalty box and dictating play.

Reagan Singh right back for the men in yellow played a dangerous cross, but Anderson Silva couldn't manage to guide the ball on target.

Chennai City dealt with the oncoming waves of Mumbai attacks courtesy their organised defence. However, they did try to make life difficult for Mumbai, looking threatening whenever they got the ball, though the occasion to do so was quite limited. Karan Sawhney had a clear shot on goal from 35 yards,

Chennai box prompted a superb save from Chennai keeper Karanjit Singh. Barely 30 seconds later, the same player had a snapshot from the Chennai box, though this time, he shot inches wide.

Debarata Roy, the Chennai City left back almost scored a spectacular own goal as his clearance caught Karanjit Singh unaware, who was forced to tip it over for a corner.

Mumbai carved a great chance to score at the stroke of half time when Densill Theobald played in Farukh Choudhary with only the keeper to beat, but his effort though on target was saved well by Karanjit.

The second half started like a completely different match, as both the sides went for the kill.

However, none of the teams went on to score despite making valiant efforts.

As the clock ticked towards the last 15 minutes, it looked inevitable that someone would score for either team.

Mumbai FC needed to score to have any hope of staying up. They almost did, as Alex Willian tied up Victorino Fernandes at the near post, who shot wide.

The game increasingly was budging to one of desperation as four minutes of added time was announced.

The game ended with the score deadlocked at 0-0.

Mumbai will now host Shillong Lajong FC in their penultimate round match on April 23.