JOIN USFC Pune City continued their march towards securing a place in the Hero Indian Super League play-offs with a 'double' over ATK as they scripted a comfortable 3-0 victory at Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium here on Saturday.
Pune had registered a convincing 1-4 victory against the defending champions in Kolkata and many believed ATK would seek revenge. That hardly happened and instead it was Pune who embarrassed ATK again with a comfortable victory.
Adil Khan (32nd minute), Diego Carlos (59th) and Rohit Kumar (77th) scored for Pune as they got the goals despite their goal-machines, Marcelinho and Emiliano Alfaro, not firing on the day.
The victory takes Pune to 19 points from 11 matches and consolidates their third position on the table. ATK, on the other hand, have 12 points from 10 matches and are placed a disappointing ninth.
Pune dominated most part of the opening half and created plenty of chances. Marcelinho and Alfaro were a constant threat and had the latter not missed a sitter, they would have been ahead early in the game. In the 19th minute, Carlos served the ball on a platter for Alfaro to head home but the striker missed from point-blank range.
Fortunately for Pune that miss did not come to haunt them as Adil broke the deadlock in the 32nd minute. A wonderful delivery from Marcelinho saw Adil rise high above the rest inside the box and finish off with a fine header for his fourth goal of the league.
ATK were surprisingly subdued and did little to fight their way back. Zequinha's effort that went straight to the goalkeeper was the closest that they got and then there was the attempt from Conor Thomas which was cleared on the goalline by Jewel Raja.
In the second half, Pune took control and got the goals that took the match away from ATK.
The second of the night came in the 59th minute and was a goof effort from Carlos. The winger got hold of the ball from almost the halfway mark and dribbled past a couple of players before firing home from outside the box.
Debjit was left stranded again in the 77th minute as Pune scored their third. This was another good goal from the youngster who collected a pass from Sarthak Golui, then took his time and picked up the bottom corner.