I-League: Air India Edge Past Pune At The Cooperage

Air India made no changes to their eleven from the one which started against Mahindra United while Pune FC had Douhou partnering Edmar upfront in the attack with Godwin Franco and Kuttymani manning the middle of the park.

Neither of the two sides put on a spectacle or had a decent attempt on goal in the opening quarter as the play was far from clinical. However, it was the spectators who drew the attention of the press box with their ‘Who are we? PFC’ chant as it seemed that the Cooperage was the home ground of the visitors.

In the 22^nd minute, Venkatesh and Douhou combined with the latter’s first time cross into the box failing to find Edmar as Uttam Singh put his body on the line to deny the Brazilian.

Yusuf Ansari forced into a substitution as Uttam was taken off for Soccor Velho, with a tactical switch coming in play with Vijith Shetty occupying the right back’s slot with Praneel Mendon drifting in the central midfield role.

Kailash Patil was guilty of fluffing an unchallenged header wide from a Ravinder Singh free-kick while at the other end, Douhou did exceptionally well to find Venkatesh in acres of space, who took too much time allowing Praneel Mendon to track back and avert the danger.

Douhou was clearly the most skilful player on the pitch as he dodged past Vijith Shetty and sent the ball into the box which couldn’t find any of the Pune FC players, with the Mumbai side’s defence ably doing their job.

Derrick Pereira introduced Sunil Kumar for Sergey Tokov, which saw Caitano Costa move into the Uzbek’s position as the move immediately clicked with the former Mahindra United player running up and down the field.

Vijith Shetty crossed for Kailash Patil but the striker failed to control the ball in the 51^st minute.

A minute later, Yusuf Ibrahim chipped the ball over the Pune FC players and released Patil who had a clear sight of the goal and made amends for his earlier misses by coolly slotting it in past Subrata Paul.

Pune FC showed some character as they did had a couple of chances thereafter with the first being of Sunil Kumar’s 30 yarder being parried by Arnab Das Sarma by diving to his left. While Edmar shrugged off a couple of Air India players to cut inside and unleash a fierce left footer which went wide.

Air India were in a tragic situation with Dada Nabeel coming on for Yusuf Ibrahim, the former HAL striker couldn’t even continue for a minute as the Mumbai club were reduced to ten men for over 10 minutes midway through the second half.

Pune FC did manage to break through the Air India back line as the two substitutes, Jeje and Anees combined, with the latter scoring the equaliser, which was flagged offside.

The win takes Air India four points clear off the relegation zone but they remain in 12th place while Pune stay in fifth spot but they have played a game more than sixth placed Chirag.

Goalscorers: Kailash Patil (Air India) 52'