Mumbai, Oct 19: After a loss and a draw in their two games so far, Mumbai City FC tasted their first win of the season with 2-0 victory over FC Pune City in their Indian Super League tie at the Mumbai Football Arena on Friday (October 19).

Foreign recruits Modou Sougou (25th minute) and Rafael Bastos (45th minute) were the goal scorers on the evening as Mumbai took all three points from the tie.

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It was billed as the 'Maharashtra Derby’, but the turnout — 4,288 the official count — on Friday was nothing close to football in India is used to seeing. Well, it might be not as historic as the Kolkata derby or as intense as a Bengaluru FC vs Mohun Bagan tie, but this one couldn’t even match what we saw when they travelled to Bengaluru last season.

But the lack of interest and hype outside the pitch barely seemed to bother the game on it as the visitors got the game off to a fiery start. And they would have drawn the first blood in the opening minute itself if not for their striker Emiliano Alfaro misdirecting his header off a Lalchhuanmwia Fania cross.

But for a game that saw teams on either side of the Western Ghats fight for bragging rights, the intensity was missing. Pune enjoyed the larger share of possession in the opening half but could barely make it count as Lucian Goian and Subhashish Bose held their line to thwart any danger.

While Pune barely managed to do threaten the Mumbai goal with their lion’s share of possession, the hosts tested and probed every opening that came their way. Paulo Machado saw his free-kick from 25 yards fly over the crossbar, while Bastos, though outmuscled on many occasions, tested Vishal Kaith in the Pune goal with his handful of attempts. And it was no surprise that it was Mumbai who went ahead to score the opener on the evening.

Found on the other end of a Bastos pass and with his marker staying close to him, Machado did well to loop in a cross into the Pune box. But it was Kaith lack of judgement that let the ball to hit the far post and ricochet back into play for Sougou to slot in the opener as Mumbai took a lead for the first time this season.

Pune too had their chances in the opening half. While Nikhil Poojary, making his first start of the season, saw his volley from inside the penalty area fly off target, Diego Carlos did well to extract a save from Amrinder Singh in the Mumbai goal.

But all their effort soon mattered for nothing as Mumbai went on to double their advantage. Building on a counter, Sougou went through on goal only for Fanai to miss time his tackle to leave referee Santosh Kumar with no choice but to point to the spot. Bastos was a composed figure from 12 yards and made no mistake as he sent Kaith the wrong way to get his first goal on Indian soil.

Things could have gotten much worse for the visitors, but Goian penalty in the injury time was parried away by Kaith while Machado found the upright with his shot in what was the final minute of play.