Hyderabad FC threw the 2024-24 Indian Super League wide open by pulling off a swashbuckling 4-0 victory over Mohammedan SC at the Kishore Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata on Saturday, October 26. They also kept their first clean sheet of the season and jumped up to the 11th spot in the league table.
The Nawabs demolished their opponents brick-by-brick and forced them to go into a shell from which they did not recover all game. A brace from striker Allan Paulista and a goal apiece from defenders Stefan Sapic and Parag Shrivas gave Hyderabad their first three points of the season.
Paulista opened the scoring for Hyderabad in the 4th minute of the game. He capitalised on a poor backpass from Florent Ogier to his goalkeeper Padam Chettri, who fumbled with his shot and handed it straight to Paulista. It was also the fastest goal scored in the ISL this season.
Centre-half Stefan Sapic then rose higher than his marker Lalremsanga Fanai in the 12th minute to head an excellent ball from Cy Goddard from the corner into the net. Paulista then put the third goal in the net for Hyderabad three minutes later after left-back Parag Shrivas found him just outside the box.
The Brazilian target-man turned exquisitely, opened his body up and curved the ball into the left corner of the net past the outstretched arms of Chettri. The Black Panthers tried their best to come back in the first half, and indeed they had more of the ball than their visitors did, but to no avail.
Mohammedan head coach Andrey Chernyshov made wholesale changes in the second half, but Hyderabad remained on the front foot. The icing on the cake – or mishti doi – came in the 50th minute for them when Shrivas received a ball from Andrei Alba about twenty yards from the goal and then transferred it to his right foot.
What followed next was a moment of pure magic. He curled it far from Chettri on the left corner of the goal and saw the ball fly past the Mohammedan goalkeeper for a stunner. The pace of the ball ensured that despite his good positioning, Chettri could barely do anything other than watch.
Diwali came a bit early in the Deccan – Hyderabad were ruthless against Mohammedan
Mohammedan were lacklustre in more ways than one, with their defenders failing to communicate with each other properly. Things looked so bad at one stage that it appeared as if the Black Panthers were fielding a side that had never trained or played with each other in the past.
In fact, Hyderabad could have put three more goals at the very least in the Mohammedan net, but their reticence held them back. The biggest chance came in the 63rd minute when Cy Goddard found himself in acres of space and one-on-one with the last Mohammedan centre-back Mohammed Irshad.
The Japan youth international, however, tried to pass it to the quickly arriving Sourav K, but the ball went rather wide. The next chance arose late on in the game when Sourav found himself with the ball and in another one-on-one situation. This time he tried to go for goal directly when the more prudent thing to do would have been to pass it to the waiting Devendra Murgaonkar.
Former Hyderabad players Makan Chothe and Sajad Parray – who jumped ship in the summer in search of greener pastures – came on as substitutes in the second half and were shell-shocked to see how the night turned out for their new team. Parray clearly handled the ball inside his own box late on in the game, only for the referee and linesman to turn a blind eye and deny Hyderabad a clear penalty.
The Nawabs were served extremely well by the midfield triangle created by Isaac Vanmalsawma, Alba and Goddard, with the latter jumping into open spaces and creating chances at will. Although the Yellow and Black (playing in a blue strip in this game) took half as many shots as their hosts (11 to 22), they were clinical and meant business whenever they had possession.
Mohammedan have a lot of time to stew over this painful defeat in front of their faithful on a weekend night, as they go up against East Bengal about ten kilometres up the road at the Salt Lake Stadium next on November 9. Hyderabad, however, have another game to play before Diwali truly arrives in the Deccan – they host Mohun Bagan Super Giant on Wednesday, November 30.
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