Punjab FC beat 10-man Hyderabad FC 2-0 in the 13th match of the Indian Super League at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday, September 25. This is the Shers’ second victory in a row over the Nawabs.
While Hyderabad will rue the fact that a poor decision from the referee in the 35th minute allowed Punjab’s Ezequiel Vidal to score from a direct free kick, their goalkeeper Arshdeep Singh could well have prevented it with better handling.
The second goal that the Nawabs conceded, in the 71st minute, was down to poor man-marking and defending in general from them. Punjab’s Croatian attacker Filip Mrzljak was allowed to tap one in after Arshdeep and centre-back Alex Saji got entangled with each other in a futile attempt to win the ball.
Punjab dominated the game in its entirety, although the first half belonged to the visitors, who took care of holding possession of the ball. However, a lack of execution of tactics seemed apparent from the Nawabs, who were intent solely on lobbing the ball high and hoping for something concrete to materialize.
The Shers pressed hard when they were without the ball, and led by Nikhil Prabhu in central midfield, they held their shape well when they had it. Prabhu was instrumental in running the show and helping out his defenders in times of need.
For Hyderabad, right-back Leander D’Cunha’s match went from bad to worse when he accrued a yellow card owing to a high kick on the nose to Vidal in the 14th minute and seemed to suffer from a brain-fade moment only minutes later.
Lenny Rodrigues passed the ball back to D’Cunha but the latter tried to shrug it off to Rafi to his left albeit without enough weight on it. Mrzljak pounced onto the ball but only managed to hit it straight to Arshdeep, who comfortably kept it safe.
D’Cunha’s lack of pace towards the fag end of the game was worrying for Hyderabad, and it eventually resulted in him getting a second yellow in the 79th minute when he caught midfielder Ricky Shabong a tad late on the ball and bit at his ankles in full flow.
Punjab FC played dominating football
Punjab seemed hungry to score as many goals as they could and kept pushing for more even after they had comfortably secured the game in the 71st minute. Strangely enough, it was Hyderabad who slowed the game down after they conceded the second goal and displayed no desire whatsoever to come back into it.
With new striker Allan Paulista coming off the bench, a lot was expected from Hyderabad’s attacking-minded players to try and create, but the way the air went out of them when defeat seemed imminent is something that will worry head coach Thangboi Singto.
Paulista was expected to recreate what former striker Jonathan Moya had achieved with a late header last season at the same fixture, but with the former having landed in India barely 48 hours ago, there could be no complaints.
Having often spoken of promoting players who have the hunger and desire to play for the club’s crest, Singto will be disheartened with the way his wards shrugged their hands off any responsibility when the game was in their control and could still have been changed.
Punjab’s Panagiotis Dilmperis became just the second head coach in the history of the ISL to win his first three games in a row after Clifford Miranda achieved this feat with FC Goa in 2019-20.
The Shers now go on top of the table with nine points to their name, while the Nawabs keep languishing at the bottom of the standings – a position they have not been able to move out of since the 2023-24 season.
With a full total of zero points inside their kitty and having conceded five goals in two games already, Hyderabad host Chennaiyin FC on Tuesday, October 1 while Punjab have a fairly long break till they go to Bengaluru on October 18.
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