Kerala Blasters and Mumbai City FC played out a boring 0-0 draw today at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kerala. The match had ample opportunities for both the teams to climb on top half of the league table, but neither of the teams showed enough determination. Kerala remains at the 6th position with 9 points from 8 games while Mumbai stick to their fourth position with 11 points from as many games.
Kerala Blasters dominated the first half, with better ball possession and more attacks. Canadian international Iain Hume was missing from the starting XI owing to an injury. The team featured in a familiar 4-4-2 formation, with local Indian striker CS Sabeeth operating from the midfield. Captain Penn Orji partnered Milagres Gonsalves on the upfront. Mumbai City FC missed the services of one of their most crucial player Andre Moritz in the starting line-up. He has been the most important player for Mumbai City till now. His work rate and creating moves was thoroughly missed by the Mumbai outfit. Lalrindika was good but not up to Mortiz’s mark. Mumbai failed to create any positive move and after the first 45 minutes they just had 1 shot on target.
The away team improved their proceedings in the second half creating more opportunities, but none of them had firepower. Peter Reid introduced Sushil Singh in the second half and pushed Subhas Singh into the striker position. Anelka came down to play just behind two Indian forwards. Hume joined the party in the second half replacing an ineffective captain Penn Orji. But none of these substitutions yielded result, as the match finished in an uninteresting draw.
