JOIN USCaptain Lucian Goian scored a last minute winner to guide Mumbai City FC to a thrilling 3-2 victory over North East United FC and keep alive their play-off hopes in the Indian Super League football tournament, here Thursday.
Romanian Goian, who was the villain in the first half after conceding an own goal to allow North East take a 2-1 half-time lead, finally made amends in brilliant fashion to sweep home a chip into the box sent by Raju Gaekwad in the 90th minute and provide a great finish for the home team when the match looked headed towards a draw.
Mumbai, who needed to win all three remaining matches to have a realistic chance of making the four-team play-offs, took an early lead but fell behind 1-2 before half- time.
They equalised early in the second half but could not break open the NorthEast defense till Goian applied the finishing touch to a fine chip to the far post by Gaekwad.
The victory also halted the hosts' four-game losing streak at the Mumbai Football Arena and helped them boost their tally to 23 points with two away games in hand against Delhi Dynamos and Chennaiyin FC, both of which they need to win in order to qualify for the semifinals.
Goian's own goal had earlier cancelled out the 15th minute lead Mumbai secured via Cameroonian Achille Emana.
Lying bottom-of-the-table NorthEast, who are out of the race for the last four, fought back brilliantly.
They applied sustained pressure on the Mumbai defense, which looked a bit shaken and also conceded an own goal, to first equalise through Goian's own goal and then took the lead just before half time via Portuguese Sambinha.
But Mumbai also bounced back by scoring early in the second half through Everton Santos who had a fine game again and then got the last-ditch match-winner from Goian.
After T P Rehenesh came up with a fine save early on with his leg to deny Everton Santos, Mumbai took the lead in the 15th minute when the mercurial Emana found the mark after being left alone to take his time by the visitors' defense.
Nine minutes later, North East equalised but in a fortuitous manner through an own goal conceded by Goian who had replaced Gerson Vieira in the eleven for the game.
Crossing over, Mumbai started with purpose and got rewarded in the 54th minute when the ebullient Everton hoodwinked a couple of defenders and found the mark with a right footed shot from close range.