Churchill Brothers, standing on kissing distance from I-League silverware, beating Mohun Bagan 2-0 margin.

      

          Churchill Brothers tamed Kolkata giant Mohun Bagan by 2-0 margin in their away encounter at Kalyani yesterday. Henry Antouchet scored a brace in the 19^th & 34^th minute of the game. With this victory the Goan outfit reached 51 points after 24^th rounds,  almost engraved their name in I-League crown for second time, while  league runners East Bengal is standing 43 after 23 rounds, mathematically East Bengal has a mere chance still now but it’s very difficult in practical.

        Everyone was eyeing towards this decisive match eagerly in the super Sunday of Indian football, the entire I-League equation was standing on the results of this heavyweight battle.

      Both the sides started yesterday without keeping each of their key players aside, while Churchill missed the service of their Brazilian gamemaker Beto in the midfield, Mohun Bagan also missed their main defender Eche in the central defence.

       The Red Machines came at Mohun Bagan with such ferocity, purpose & planning that the hosts were left gasping for an answer.

           The first goal came off a nice coordination between the two Churchill Brothers’ strikers – Henry and Sunil Chhetri – who played a quick 1-2 and got the Mohun Bagan on the wrong foot. Henry went in unchallenged and placed the ball past the Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Shilton Paul.

      A long goal kick from Churchill Brothers’ keeper Sandip Nandy landed near the Mohun Bagan box and before the host defenders could decide how react to it, Henry pounced on the opportunity and slotted the ball home for second time which sealed the game in their fore.

         Balal Arezou, the Afghan international could have made it 3-0 easily but wasted two opportunities on either side of the half. First, his header off a Denzil Franco cross was kept out by Shilton in the 42nd minute, and then in the 51st minute after Chhetri found him with a timely lay-off following that he sailed the ball over the barpost.

        Bencharifa introduced Jewel Raja & Snheasish Chakrborty in the place of Maithani & Sabeeth.

       Mohun Bagan made few desperate attempts after the restart of the game and earned a few good scoring chances with its Nigerian striker Onyeka Okolie Odafa getting a few good breaks.
         Denzil Franco denied Mohun Bagan from a goalline save, Quinton Jacobs failed to guide inside an empty net following a through ball passed by Odafa from the right. Another Odafa freekick was brilliantly saved by Nandy later in the action.
        The Afghan international Balal Arezou played an excellent match, from defence to midfield, midfiled to frontline, he was very much visible in everywhere during the match, another person the visitors custodian Sandip Nandy acted as a fortress in their lastline of defence, he saved almost everything which reached to him, he is selected the “Man of the Match”.
       At the end of the match entire unit of Churchill made a grand celebration for their second I-League triumph in the presence of their owner Alemao Churchill inside the venue.

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