A moment from North East United FC vs Mumbai City FC
Deshorn Brown’s powerful hat-trick ensured that Mumbai City FC were denied a win after two matches as NorthEast United FC played out a 3-3 draw against the defending champions in the high-octane Hero Indian Super League encounter here on Monday.
Brown scored in the 29th, 56th and 80th minutes in the form of Igor Angulo (33rd, 52nd) and Bipin Singh (40th).
The result means Mumbai top the pile with 16 points from eight matches but are drawn after a 0-3 loss to Kerala Blasters. NorthEast United are ninth with eight points from nine matches.
Mumbai had an early exchange with Casio Gabriel and Jahouh pulling the strings in the middle of the park. Mohammad Nawaz did not need to warm up his gloves before the first quarter of the half when the keeper tapped a tricky Mathias Kaurur header.
Against the race of the game, NorthEast United shed first blood. Brown marked his comeback with a goal as the Jamaican forward made the most of a brilliant diagonal ball from impressive Imran Khan and passed it past Nawaz who charged.
Staggered by shock just before the half-hour mark, Mumbai carried on and were soon rewarded. Bipin bursts from the left edge and hits it for Angulo, who taps home from close.
Seven minutes later and five minutes to halftime, Angulo became the provider as the veteran Spaniard hit an overlapping bipin later from a tight angle to effect a first low finish.
Failing to get down on time, Mirshad was allowed to pass through the post near him. At the break, Mumbai were 2-1 with NorthEast United snapping on their heels all the way. It was action from the word go in the second period as Hernan Santana forced Nawaz to make a great save three minutes into the half.
Mumbai soon added to their tally as Angulo scored his second goal when Yagor Catato unlocked a NorthEast United defense to find Angulo, who slid home from close.
Mumbai’s joy was short-lived as the excellent Brown got his name on the scoresheet again, peeling off his marker and using power to hit the ball across the keeper and into the back of the net.
Mumbai looked for a cushion to find some breathing space as Bipin’s drive was well saved by Mirshad, but much to their pain, Brown completed his hat-trick by directing Imran’s shot into an empty net. Because Rahul Bheke failed to remove the threat and Nawaz was guilty of coming out. His line should have been before that.
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