Mumbai: Mumbai City FC and Kerala Blasters continued their winless streak as they played out a 1-1 draw in an Indian Super League encounter at the Mumbai Football Arena here on Thursday.
Raphael Messi Bouli (75th) put Kerala in the lead but Mumbai hit back with an Amine Chermiti strike (77th) to share the spoils.
Mumbai and Kerala are without a win in six matches and find themselves at sixth and eighth spot on the table, with one point separating them.
Chasing their second win of the season, Kerala Blasters showed plenty of intent but lacked an end product as they dominated the early stages. A 12th minute Raju Gaikwad throw-in found its way towards Seityasen Singh who shot wide from a one-on-one with Mumbai goalkeeper Amrinder Singh. Bouli, who led the Kerala Blasters attack in the absence of Bartholomew Ogbeche, was a handful for the Mumbai defence.
Midway through the half, the Cameroonian striker pulled off a brilliant overhead effort from inside the box off Jessel Carneiro’s cross from the left, but was denied a goal-of-the-season contender by Amrinder, who kept the shot out.
Mumbai slowly regained control in midfield and threatened before the break with Rowllin Borges and Moudou Sougou combining to carve out two good chances.
Borges did well to find Sougou out wide and the forward’s cross for Chermiti was punched away by TP Rehenesh, before a similar cross from the same combination saw Mohammed Larbi head over the bar.
The game evened up after the change of ends, with Mumbai turning more aggressive in their approach. The home side were brilliantly denied twice by Rehenesh who kept Kerala Blasters in the contest.
The goalkeeper was quick to rush off his line to get to Chermiti’s dangerous long pass before the intended target, Bipin Singh, could receive it inside the box.
Minutes later, Borges split the Kerala defence with an excellent through-ball that released Bipin into the box. (PTI)
