Mohun Bagan has won their I-League encounter against
Dempo by 2-1 margin. Rahim Nabi scored the first goal in the 6th minute
of the game, Odafa extended the lead in the 47th minute,
Peter
Carvalho for Dempo minimized the deficit just after 3 minutes.
Following
their last match against Lajong FC which was ended in a 2 all stalemate this became
a do or die battle for Mohun Bagan, 3 points were compulsory for them to
survive from relegation on the other hand defending champion Dempo have been
going through a rough patch, they had lost their last match against Pune FC by
2-0 margin.
The
visitors had missed few of their first eleven players due to injury concern in
the likes of experienced pro Mahesh Gawli, Ryouji Sueka & Subhasish
Raichoudary under their goal.
While
Karim Bencharifa got a full fit line up, started with 4-3-3 formation, keeping
Odafa, Tolgay & Sabeeth in the
upfront from the beginning.
However
it took only 6 minutes for Mohun Bagan to take the crucial lead. Tolgay received
a ball from Odafa in the left side, passed it to Sabeeth who lobbed the ball
into the centre on Nabi’s head who guided the ball into the net.
Odafa
could have doubled the lead in the 16th minute after getting a free
ball from Sabeeth, taken a shot which gone over the post.
Manish
Maithani failed to get rid of Dempo custodian Kuttimani alone from a one is to
one position in the 27th minute.
Just
after that Anthony Perera of Dempo got their first positive chance to score
from the ride side of the box, failed to find the net.
Both the sides had their chances in the
remaining first half but both of them failed to utilize, Mohun Bagan ended the
first half with 1-0 lead.
Mohun
Bagan got their second goal just after the restart of the game, as Nabi ran
through the centre, released the ball to
Odafa who didn’t make any mess to
guide it inside the net getting past a Dempo defender who failed to intercept
the ball.
When
it looked all over for Dempo then Antony Pereira gave them a lifeline by
scoring the solitary goal for Dempo in the 50th minute of the game.
In
later Karim brought Quinton Jacobs in the place of Tolgay, which became
actually a valuable change for Mohun Bagan, Quinton has taken the entire control
of the midfield which didn’t allow Dempo to get rid of. He sent few beautiful
goal bound passes to Odafa & Sabeeth but they failed to utilize all those
or else the scoreline could have been different.
On the
other hand the visitors also had couple of missed opportunities.
From
this victory Mohun Bagan has reached to 13 points with 8 games in their hand
yet while Dempo remained 35 points after 22 round.