KOLKATA, Dec. 4 - Defending champion Atletico de Kolkata were brought down to earth by Mumbai City FC with a 3-2 victory in the final league match of the two teams in the Hero ISL-2 at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Friday. This was ATK�s third home defeat, fifth overall.
The loss left ATK unsure of the top spot in the standings and opened the door for either Delhi Dynamos or FC Goa to decide between themselves. In the event of the two teams playing out a draw, the equation could still favour ATK who ended with 24 points and MCFC moved to 16 points from 14 games.
Mumbai City FC drew the first blood when Sony Norde placed his left-footed shot in after Selim Benachour put him though with a lovely through ball.
With more than 60,000 cheering the home side, Mumbai City goal fell a minute into the injury time. Mohammed Rafique was brought down inside the penalty box by Pratesh Shirodkar and the spot kick was slotted home by Iain Hume. This was his 10th goal. He is one behind the top scorer from Chennaiyin FC Stiven Mendoza who has 11 to his credit.
The visitors dominated the exchanges on resumption. Quick passes and good positional play marked the Mumbai team�s approach as ATK continued to use counter attacks to get goals.
After a couple of changes the teams effected, came another penalty in favour of Mumbai City FC. Substitute Juan Aguilera was brought down by Tiri. Chhetri made no mistake of the spot kick.
The success was shortlived as ATK restored parity at the stroke of 90th minute. A long ball from Borja Fernandez found both Hume and Arata going for the ball. It was Arata who got the ball and shot home.
As the home crowd cheered the goal, came MCFC�s match-winner through a fine effort from Nordy in the third minute of the injury time. His shot went in off the near post to give Mumbai a well deserved victory.
