Margao: As many as 114 games, 295 goals, 87,811 passes and 7307 tackles later, the Indian Super League 7 will culminate with a heavyweight summit showdown between Mumbai City FC and ATK Mohun Bagan on Saturday. The match that lends meaning to every single touch taken so far, in what has been an exciting ISL season, will be played at the Fatorda Stadium. When Mumbai City FC take on ATK Mohun Bagan in the summit clash, there will be no more complex equations in play. The winner takes home the trophy. It’s as simple as that. Few would argue that there is a better candidate for the final than these two — both Bagan and Mumbai have been head and shoulders above the rest throughout the season. Both the teams come into the final with identical records — 12 wins and just 4 defeats in the league stage. Despite a nervy penalty-shootout win over FC Goa in the semi-final, it will be Mumbai who head into the final full of confidence. They did the double over Bagan in the league stage, the latter of those victories handing them the League Winners Shield. For Mumbai, this will be a first-ever final, but coach Sergio Lobera, and a handful of his players have been here before when FC Goa lost to Bengaluru FC in 2018-19. The team though has looked confident under Lobera. “They (ATK Mohun Bagan) are a very good team with good players and have the momentum. But the most important thing now is to put the focus on ourselves and try to do our best. “We have no specific plan, only small details about the opponent. We need to work 100 percent on our style of play,” said Lobera. There will be few selection dilemmas for Lobera, with the exception of figuring out Mandar Rao Dessai’s replacement. The Goan will miss the final due to suspension. In the other corner, there is Bagan, buoyed by Antonio Habas’ almost superhuman record in knockout games. He has already tasted glory twice and has a chance to create history by winning his second straight title and third overall. On the eve of the final, the Spaniard sounded as focused as ever. “We have to compete and our idea is to win against our opponents. My team is prepared for winning,” he said. Habas dismissed that previous results had no bearing on the match but that his side was braced for a tough test. “We have to analyse the match and control (our chances of) victory than (try to) control the way they play. The opponent will play and maybe, we have will difficulties.” The match will also decide the fate of the golden boot and golden glove winners. While Bagan striker Roy Krishna and Goa’s Igor Angulo are tied on 14 goals for the golden boot, a goal on Saturday will hand the award to the Fijian, who has played more minutes than the Spaniard. The race for the golden glove award is between Mumbai custodian Amrinder Singh and ATKMB’s Arindam Bhattacharja. Both the players have 10 clean sheets to their name. At the moment, Arindam is in pole position, having conceded fewer goals. With inputs from PTI
Highlights, ISL 2021 Final, Mumbai City FC vs ATK Mohun Bagan: Bipin Singh goal sees Mumbai claim first ISL title
Catch all the updates from the Indian Super League final between Mumbai City FC and ATK Mohun Bagan on our LIVE blog here! read more
 "Highlights, ISL 2021 Final, Mumbai City FC vs ATK Mohun Bagan: Bipin Singh goal sees Mumbai claim first ISL title")
THE BIG MOMENT FOR MUMBAI CITY! The MCFC squad enters the stage to collect their winners’ medal, and eventually the ISL trophy!
The Mumbai City FC players hold aloft the trophy!
List of award winners:
Golden Glove Award: Arindam Bhattacharga (ATKMB)
Golden Boot Award: Igor Angulo (FC Goa)
ISL Emerging Player of the League: Apuia
Winning Pass of the League: Alberto Noguera
Hero of the League: Roy Krishna
Sergio Lobera: It’s important for the team, not only for me. I want to thank the players and the whole Mumbai City family. We deserve to enjoy this moment.
It was a difficult situation at halftime, with Amey’s situation. I told the players to focus on the game, because Amey is strong. We hope he recovers as soon as possible.
The level of Indian players is key to win the trophies. We need to work with these players, because they learn every day, and if you give them the opportunity, they will take it like Bipin did today. It’s a team goal though, but I’m proud of all my players.
Amrinder Singh: Bipin has been performing consistently this season. When a new coach comes in, it’s difficult to adjust, but he did it so well. I’ve never seen his performance suffer, and that’s why he got the goal. In matches he does so well.
It’s a great feeling to finish top of the table, and then continue the level in the playoffs. It’s not easy to maintain the level throughout. After winning one trophy, we still had it in us to keep going. I’m really proud of all the boys.
Bartholomew Ogbeche: First and foremost, I need to give all praises to God. I’m just happy, it hasn’t really sunk in. I’m really really proud of the whole team and the efforts we’ve put in. I just let Bipin score, and it was the best decision I could have taken. I’m so proud to be a part of this team.
We were a little affected by Ameya’s injury at half time, but I hope he’s fine. We said we would do it for Ameya. After his injury, it was tough for us to get our heads back into the game but we were able to turn our focus around. ATK is a difficult team to play against, but we didn’t lose our composure. We struck when we needed to.
Not too long ago, it was Mumbai Indians that won, and now it’s Mumbai City, so Mumbai rules the world.
MCFC 2- 1 ATKMB
FULL TIME!!! AAAAND MUMBAI CITY FC ARE ISL CHAMPIONS FOR THE FIRST TIME! What an incredible season this has been for the team from Maharashtra, and their players are all smiles and they have all the reason to.
ATK’s major blunder came in the form of Tiri’s own goal, had that been avoided, the situation of the match would have been lot more different.
ATKMB have been decimated by Mumbai City FC!
MCFC 2- ATKMB 1
90: GOOAAAAAAAL!! Mumbai leave it late! Ogbeche maintains the ball and runs forward, crosses a brilliant pass to Bipin Singh waiting inside the box, who finishes off in style! 2-1 for Mumbai and this might be it!
MCFC 1-1 ATKMB
87’: Right, Mumbai make another change, with Cy Goddard in for Hugo Boumous. It’s just a matter of a few more minutes in regulation time, but will ATKMB once again strike late?
MCFC 1-1 ATKMB
80’: We’re into the final quarter of regulation time and Mumbai continue to dominate possession. They even lead in terms of shots on target (Mumbai’s 5 to ATK’s 3), but can they find a possible winning goal here?
MCFC 1- 1 ATKMB
69: ATKMB are on an attacking spree here, and Mumbai’s Vignesh makes a successful clearance. Mumbai, however, still need to find a way past this ATK defence.
Meanwhile, Bartholomew Ogbeche is on for Adam Le Fondre for Mumbai City.
MCFC 1- 1 ATKMB
63: Off-Side! and goal disallowed! Javi Hernandez with a free-kick for ATK and the ball is deflected from Mohamad Rafiq’s knee for an own-goal, but the referee declares it off-side. Referee thinks Krishna was on the way, and the Fijian is furious.
MCFC 1- 1 ATKMB
51: Short corner from Hugo Boumous who tries to put a cross into the box, but is cleared by Tiri. Adam le Fondre gets a rebound but is unable to pull this off.
UPDATE ON AMEY RANAWADE
Amey Ranawade has been taken to a hospital for further medical care. We will issue an update on his condition in due course.
— Mumbai City FC (@MumbaiCityFC) March 13, 2021
Stay strong, Amey!
MCFC 1-1 ATKMB
48: Manvir Singh sets up the ball for Lenny Rodrigues outside the box, but the ATKMB midfielder’s shot goes out of play following a deflection.
MCFC 1- 1 ATKMB
HALF TIME! Something of an uneventful ending to the first-half of the ISL final, with Ranawade going off the field after being stretchered off to the ambulance following a collision with ATKMB’s Manvir Singh. The Mumbai bench looks worried, and its not-so-good signs for the Islanders.
All in all, it’s been a lively first-half, with Mumbai City winning 61 percent of ball possession. Tiri’s blunder was costly, and that means there’s still all to play for in the second-half.
Join us in a few minutes for the second-half!
MCFC 1- 1 ATKMB
45: Three minutes added in injury time as we approach the end of the first-half in this enthralling final!
Mumbai City 1- ATK Mohun Bagan 1
41: Hugo Boumous releases the ball on the right for Amey Ranawade but the Indian is unable to consistently control the ball!
MCFC 1- 1 ATKMB
36: Adam Le Fondre delivers a brilliant cross from the right flank, but Bipin Singh just misses the header in front of goal. That was a close, close chance!
MCFC 1- 1 ATK Mohun Bagan
29: OWN GOAL! A major blunder from ATKMB’s Tiri as he heads the ball past his own team’s goalkeeper! This is a goal gifted to Mumbai! The Islanders are right back in it!
Mumbai City 0-ATK Mohun Bagan 1
24: GOAAAAL! ATK Mohun Bagan take the lead on the back of a brilliant shjot from David Williams! He’s nailed that shot, and he’s assisted by none other than Roy Krishna!
Roy Krishna dislodged the ball from Jahouh and Williams gets the loose balll to smash past Amrinder Singh.
Mumbai City 0-ATK Mohun Bagan 0
12’: NO PENALTY! The Mariners’ Pritam Kothal brings down Bipin Singh inside the box. The refereee awatds a free-kick instead of a penalty as Mumbai players are furious. Free kick to Mumbai City!
Jahouh with the free kick and sends in a good cross into the box but Jhinghan heads the ball away to avoid danger.
Mumbai City 0-ATK Mohun Bagan 0
7’ | Mumbai City FC are awarded an early-free kick after ATKMB’s Lenny Rodrigues traps Adam Le Fondre on the knee in the midfield. Still early times, but the teams are yet to break deadlock.
JUST 10 MINUTES TO GO!
via GIPHYIt’s nearly here!!
🎶 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣 🎶#HeroISLFinal #MCFCATKMB #LetsFootball pic.twitter.com/eMyfW0SnAq
— Indian Super League (@IndSuperLeague) March 13, 2021
Mumbai City are the league shield winners this season but over the course of two legs in the semi-final, Goa were the better team. They took the lead twice in the first-leg, but conceded twice. They had six shots on target on Monday to Mumbai’s zero. They enjoyed more possession and most of their players were much better than their opponents.
Read Anish Anand’s talking points of the second leg here.
Who’ve you got for the all-important final?
Who are you backing to win the #ISL title?
— Firstpost Sports (@FirstpostSports) March 13, 2021
Let us know down below! 👇#MCFCATKMBhttps://t.co/4pttQSsTPb
Long before the current season of the Indian Super League began, reigning champions ATK Mohun Bagan were already everyone’s shoo-in to defend the title. Now, several months and many, many matches later, they find themselves within touching distance of a second successive title after beating NorthEast United in a thrilling second leg of the semi-final.
Click here to read Aadi Nair’s talking points from ATK Mohun Bagan’s 2-1 win over NEUFC.
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