ISL 2015: Velez and NorthEast knock Pune out of contention
Goals from Nicolas Velez, Diomansy Kamara and Andre Bikey helped NorthEast United to a 3-2 win over FC Pune City at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday. The win puts them back into fourth place and in contention for the last semi-final spot.
David Platt, FC Pune City manager, made a tactical change for this game and went with a more defensive 4-4-1-1 instead of the 4-3-3 formation he used in the last match.
The tactics, however, did not work for Pune as Nicolas Velez provided the home team with an early lead and sent the crowd into raptures. The Argentinian scored the 150th goal of this season's ISL when he turned in a Victor Mendy low cross from the right wing in the 6th minute.
However, James Bailey equalized for Pune just one minute later. Jackichand Singh found Didier Zokora at the edge of the box and the Ivorian passed it square to Bailey just outside the box. The English man took a touch and curled a delightful shot past Rehenesh TP in the NorthEast goal to score for the first time in the season.
Kamara restored NorthEast's lead in the 17th minute from a fast counter-attack. Velez delivered an inch-perfect cross from the right and it reached Kamara at the far post. The Senegalese midfielder had the simple task of lifting the ball into the roof of the net past the hapless Pune goalkeeper.
In the 32nd minute, Platt made another tactical change, this time replacing Jackichand Singh with Bikash Jairu. Lenny Rodrigues was pulled back to the midfield, and Jairu was played as a wide-forward as Pune shifted back to the 4-3-3 formation.
Five minutes later, Pune goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya was called into action, when Victor Mendy won a header at the near post and kept his shot on target. Arindam kept out that shot, but could not do much about Bikey's header few minutes later.
The home side doubled their lead just before the halftime, when Andre Bikey headed in a flighted free-kick from Bruno Arias. Arindam came out of his goal to collect the ball, but Bikey showed more determination and reached to it before him, before finding the back of the net.
Adrian Mutu scored from a fantastic free-kick in the 85th minute to provide Pune with hopes of a late comeback, but it was too little too late as NorthEast held on to the lead and won the game.
The win takes NorthEast to the fourth place in the points table just ahead of Chennaiyin FC. The Highlanders will now have to hope that Pune defeats Chennaiyin FC in their last game on December 5, which would send NorthEast straightaway into the semi-final.
