Defending champions Mumbai City FC (MCFC) were held to a 1-1 (HT 1-1) draw by a 10-man Odisha FC in the ongoing Indian Super League (ISL) 2024-25 at the Mumbai Football Arena (MFA), Mumbai on Sunday night in a hard fought match.   

Talismanic striker Roy Krishna (14’) put the visitors ahead before Nikolaos Karelis (23’) scored the equalizer soon after, which resulted in both teams settling for a point each.

The third draw for the Petr Kratky coached Mumbai City outfit, their second on a trot at home resulted in them placed ninth in the ISL table with six points from five games.

The former MCFC coach Sergio Lobera Odisha FC side return at MFA ended the Kalinga Warriors their away game losing streak against the Islanders and more importantly consolidated their position at seventh place with six points from as many games.

Expressing his dissatisfaction after playing out a 1-1 draw in a cagey affair marred by a number of bookings including a red card to former MCFC player and OFC midfielder Ahmed Jahouh’s 10 minutes before the final whistle by referee Rahul Kumar Guptan the final fixture of match week six.

The end-to-end battle from offset, where both teams created numerous goalscoring opportunities throughout the game with intensified competitiveness for tactical supremacy. The visitors broke the deadlock first through their Fijian forward Roy Krishna who capitalized on the hosts' defensive error at the back of goalkeeper Phurba Lachenpa misjudgment off a lobbed pass by MCFC  defender Valpuia outside the six yard box.

However, Kratky’s men displayed a quick reaction as their Greek striker Nikolaos Karelis netted the equaliser eight minutes late with a simple tap-in past former MCFC custodian Amrinder Singh, following a beautiful piece of run of play between Jon Toral and captain Lallianzuala Chhangte. The duo combined well with each other at the edge of the box, and the latter provided a defense-splitting pass to the Karelis, who made no mistake to strike his third goal in the ISL 2024-25.

Kratky believed that his team found themselves back on track after scoring the equalizer following a poor opening quarter of the match.

“I think we started very poorly, to be honest. First 20 minutes, there were a lot of mistakes. Obviously, we got the goal from one of them, but the football wasn't exactly so. We have to look at that,” Kratky said in the post-match press conference.

“The start of the game wasn't ideal, but then as soon as we got the goal, we started improving as the game went on. We got better and better, and we created goalscoring opportunities. I'm very happy with that,” he added.

Despite the Islanders generating numerous attacking moves with Toral, Karelis, Noufal PN, and others in the second half, they couldn’t convert those chances as the game ended on level terms.

The MCFC Head Coach urged his players to be more precise in terms of converting chances. Shedding light on their overall performance against their rivals and said ““I think it was a clear goalscoring opportunity where we should convert, but as I said, in terms of how the game went, I think we started poorly today, but as the game progressed, we got better and better in football. We find the spaces where we want to find and score goals—very good goals.”

He further added, “Again, there are a lot of positives. Obviously, we are sad because we wanted to win. We have an opportunity to do so, but we have to improve. We have to be a little bit more dominant across the game and get three points because it's very important in this season”

Odisha FC Head coach on the other  hand commended his players' determination following their 1-1 draw against the host but acknowledged that victory was the goal, securing a point was still an amazing effort.

Sergio Lobera said, “When you are trying to win and you get just one point, it is not the best result.  But you need to analyse the game. My feeling is that we gained one point more than we lost two."

He praised the Mumbai City FC team and the players’ efforts in dealing with a strong opponent “We played against a very good team. My feeling is (that) my players made an amazing effort at the end despite being a player short at the back end of the match.

Both Mumbai City FC and Odisha FC return to action in the double header on Sunday 3rd November against Kerala Blasters FC and NorthEast United FC respectively.

Result

Mumbai City FC 1 (Nikolaos Karelis 23’) drew Odisha FC 1 (Roy Krishna 14’)

Photo Above : Striker Nikolaos Karelis (Right) scored the equalizer for Mumbai City FC off a through pass by captain Lallianzuala Chhangte (Left) against Odisha FC which had five of their ex-players in their fold including custodian Amrinder Singh and Navi Mumbai based defender Amey Ranawade (Photo courtesy ISL)