Alaaeddine ajaraie
ISL 2024-25: NorthEast United End Year With Flawless 3-0 Win Over Mumbai City FC
This was the first time that the Highlanders triumphed over the Islanders in their last seven ISL meetings. Despite dominating 65.2% of the possession, Mumbai City FC could take only three shots on target, as compared to the seven of the visitors. The home team took 31 crosses but were unable to muster up concrete chances in the final third. The match started with NorthEast United FC netting in the 46th second of the match through Ajaraie, in what turned out to be the fastest goal by the Highlanders in an ISL game, beating the previous best by VP Suhair (01:42 vs Mohun Bagan Super Giant on December 21, 2021).
The visitors won the ball back from Nikolaos Karelis in the opening move of the game before Parthib Gogoi brought down a long ball with a delicate touch on the right flank and sent in a probing cross that Ajaraie nestled into the centre of the goal from close range. This strike broke Mumbai City FC’s four-game-long streak of keeping clean sheets, and it also resulted in the second-fastest goal conceded by the Islanders in the ISL history after Cleiton Silva’s goal in 25 seconds on February 15, 2021, against them.
