Propped up by goals from Adil Nabi and Enas Edathodia and John Arne Riise, Delhi Dynamos broke their winless run at home and closed in on a semifinal berth with a convincing 3-1 victory over Pune City FC in the Indian Super league (ISl) football here on Thursday.
Nabi scored the opening goal in the 35th minute while Edathodia found the net within a span of five minutes, heading one in on the 40th minute to give the hosts a comfortable cushion at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium that witnessed a poor turnout of about 3500.
Riise added to Pune City FC’s agony with another strike in the 87th minute, successfully converting a penalty that was awarded to the hosts after Zodingliana Tochhawng was felled by visiting player Govin Singh.
Romanian marquee player Adrian Mutu lived upto the tag, scoring a consolation goal (90+5) in the added time from a beautiful freekick.
The win, a much-needed one, takes the Dynamos to second place with 18 points from 10 games, while Pune City FC held on to their fourth place.
Frustrated with the run of three draws in front of their home crowd, the Dynamos showed intent straightaway. The defence, led by the ever-reliable Riise, and skipper Anderson Sebastiao de Souza, did not let the likes of Adrian Mutu and Kalu Uche to penetrate.
While the UK-based Adil Nabi got himself onto the scoresheet, his striking partner Robin Singh had his share of chance but could not convert.
It was not a surprise that the hosts went into the break with their nose way ahead of Pune City FC. They started off with the right intention and tested Pune goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharjee in the first minute itself.
Their relentless efforts paid dividends when Nabi broke the deadlock just after the half an hour mark. The West Brom loanee got on the end of a Malouda corner to score his first goal for the Dynamos. Malouda’s corner was flicked on by Robin Singh for Nabi, who made no mistake in putting the ball into back of the net.
Delhi doubled the lead within five minutes as Edathodia headed in a Malouda corner, and the Pune defence was caught napping.