Vishal Kaith and Gurtej Singh the heroes of Pune's Maha Derby double against Mumbai City

The defensive duo were once again in inspired form as they delivered another clean sheet for the Stallions.

An erroneous deflection from Raju Gaikwad and a beautifully taken finish from Marcelinho made all the difference as FC Pune City beat Mumbai City 2-0 in the Maharashtra derby. The win keeps The Stallions in 2nd place in the Hero Indian Super League, three points ahead of 3rd placed Jamshedpur FC and five behind table-toppers Bengaluru FC.

Watch: Mumbai City FC 0-2 FC Pune City highlights

Mumbai City

Amrinder Singh- 6.0

Amarinder wasn’t at his best and the scoreline tells you that. He should have done better while letting the second goal in. An off day for him which every goalkeeper has at least once a season.

Raju Gaikwad- 5.0

Raju Gaikwad started just like Mehrajuddin Wadoo started against Jamshedpur, low on confidence and the end result turned out to be the same for the Mumbai lad what it was for the veteran Mumbai FC defender - costing Mumbai City FC a goal and three crucial points at home.

Raju couldn’t handle the physicality of Diego Carlos letting him score a goal when he could have easily cleared the ball. A very disappointing evening for the Islanders’ defender.

Sahil Tavora- 7.0

Sahil Tavora’s performance can be summed up in one sentence - “Good defending, bad crossing.” Defensively, Sahil was a wall to get through and his tackle on Sarthak Golui to get the ball away from any scoring position in the dying minutes of the first half exemplifies how good he was in the game. But, what let him and his team down was the poor crosses he and his teammates were putting in the Pune box. 

Sanju Pradhan- 7.5

Sanju has developed a knack of playing out of position almost throughout the game and yet having an impactful presence in the same. Fielded as a wing-back, Sanju was seen almost for the whole game as a central midfielder. The occasional overlapping run being the exception. He, like his fellow wing-back though, was poor in crossing the ball. Sanju created two chances for his side which couldn’t get converted.

Balwant Singh- 6.0

Watch: Balwant Singh misses an aerial chance against FC Pune City 

Balwant Singh, by scoring against FC Goa, gave Mumbai City FC false hope that he was back in form. There were at least two clear scoring opportunities that Balwant missed and looked out of gas throughout the game. He had two shots on target and created one chance. 

Zakeer Mundampara - 6.5

Zakeer, after playing some of the finest games of his career, had an average outing against FC Pune City. He couldn’t do much in a game that saw Pune City’s midfield schooling Mumbai’s. Zakeer was hence substituted out with a passing accuracy of 75%. 

Substitutes:

Pranjal Bhumij - 6.0

The way Pranjal made runs on the right flank, it looked like he would have been a better option than Everton Santos for to start for manager Alexandre Guimaraes. It is high time the Costa Rican stops having faith in the Brazilian and gives the Indian youngster a chance to prove himself.

Davinder Singh: 5.5

Davinder had less time to capitalise and make his mark in the game. He had a decent outing as a substitute who came on in the last 17 minutes of the game. Couple of link-up passes with either Achille Emana or Bhumij were some of the highlights of the young lad on the pitch. He showed good energy and intensity but the urge to get Mumbai back into the game was missing.

Also Read

Gaikwad own goal and Marcelinho strike as Pune do the double over Mumbai in Maha Derby

Guimaraes blames wasted chances, Popovic happy to win derby

Delhi and Chennaiyin split points after entertaining draw

 FC Pune City

Vishal Kaith- 9.0

Watch: Vishal Kaith talks about the Maha Derby after his side's 0-2 win over Mumbai City FC

Pune City defended well and the defenders were up to the mark. But, saying only that much would mean we are discrediting Vishal Kaith, Pune’s goalkeeper, of what he did. Kaith was brilliant whenever he had to be and made it look as if there were three goalkeepers playing for Pune City by saving four clear goalscoring chances.

Gurtej Singh- 8.0

Gurtej made nine clearances in 96 minutes - that’s one every 10 minutes Gurtej did everything to assure that Mumbai City FC’s coach Guimaraes  again had to say, “We were knocking the door but we couldn’t get in it.” A wall who dealt with everything that was thrown at him, Gurtej produced a masterclass performance. He also managed to have passing accuracy of 85%.

Sahil Panwar- 7.0

Sahil Panwar had the better game out of Pune's two full-backs. Sahil looked completely in control of Mumbai’s already disturbed and out of sync right flank as he easily managed to keep Everton Santos out of the game. Adding to that, Sahil contributed to the attacking department as well creating a chance for a teammate and having a shot of his own.

Sarthak Golui- 8.5

Sarthak Golui’s stats from the game are - an assist, a chance created and a shot on target. He was completely in the game from the word go and was in it until he was subbed out so that Ranko Popovic could keep him fresh for the upcoming games. A performance as good as this in a high intensity Maharashtra Derby might just tell you that the lad is ready to face the tougher challenge of contending for a place in the Indian National Team.

Adil Khan- 8.5

Adil Khan was played as a pivot, a very uncharacteristic position for him as we have seen him mostly at the right-back position or in the #8 role. But Pune's fan favourite didn’t let them or his team down as he produced a defensive masterclass against the Cameroonian Emana and his fellow attacking teammates. Adil made six tackles and intercepted four balls. One extra mark for the versatility of the midfielder. 

Baljit Sahni- 6.5

Baljit Sahni was found guilty of getting caught out of position a number of times as he let Balwant enjoy acres of space down the left flank of Mumbai City. Had Mumbai had an in-form Balwant, the result would have been exactly the opposite of what it is. He played the full 96 minutes of the game and blocked two shots.

Substitutes

[KH_RELATED_NEWS title="Related News"][/KH_RELATED_NEWS]

Rohit Kumar- NA

Rohit came in when all he had to do was help his team in keeping the scoreline what it was and he did succeed in it. Rohit had only 12 touches on the ball which means he did’t do enough to be rated.