Mohun Bagan got past Dempo by 2-1 margin in their crucial I-League tie.

Mohun Bagan has won their I-League encounter against Dempo by 2-1 margin. Rahim Nabi scored the first goal in the 6^th minute of the game, Odafa extended the lead in the 47^th 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 16^th 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 27^th 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.

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