Bhutia leads Bagan's win over Viva

Mohun Bagan skipper Baichung Bhutia led his team from the front to settle their scores even against fancied opponents Viva Kerala as they edged past local favourites 2-0, in presence of moderate crowd, in the 11th round match of the ONGC I-League played at the Corporation Stadium here on Sunday.

The Kolkata giants scored a goal in each half through captain Bhutia (35th) and substitute Ishfaq Ahmed in the closing stages of the game to take revenge of their home-leg defeat. The last time the two teams met in the I-League, Viva had won 3-1 in Kolkata.

With this win, Bagan took its tally to 17 points from 11 games, while Viva has 12 in same number of outings. The green-and-maroons remain in the fourth spot behind runaway leaders Dempo followed by JCT and Churchill Brothers in the 10-team league.

The match had a boisterous start with both the teams charging down in each other’s arena in quest of an early goal. The Kolkata outfit nearly scored in the 22nd minute but was not lucky enough as Viva’s Tutu George came up with a sharp goalline save to deny visitors the goal.

However on the counter attack Viva’s Nigerian striker Baba Tunde dodged past Bagan defenders and took a shy at the goal, but much to his dismay Bagan’s custodian Sangram proved equal to the task.

The Kochi outfit had to blame themselves for the defeat as they in fact got more chances to score in comparison to their opponents, but they couldn’t convert even a single one because of lack of combination of their players and some sloppy finishing by their strikers.

Bagan’s defence was spearheaded by Brazilian Douglas Santos, who was later named Man of the Match. Douglas stood like a rock in front of Viva strikers and didn’t give them an inch to surge ahead. The other important factor that came as a barrier in Viva’s victory was some fine performance displayed by goalie Sangram Mukherjee under the bar.

Bagan drew first blood ten minutes before the breather through Indian skipper Bhutia. Habibur Rahman Mondal sent an excellent cross from the right flank finding striker Jose Barreto, who gave a perfect header to Bhutia to slot the ball home. Bagan led 1-0 at the time of lemon-break.

On resumption, Viva players pressed hard for an equaliser through their strikers Baba, Wisdom Abbey and Ebin Rose, the trio combined well and started flurry of attacks in the rival danger area.

Viva players brought more penetration in the Bagan’s citadel and gave some anxious moments to their rival defence but all their forays turned futile by the Bagan defenders.

Bagan’s second goal came in the 89th minute with once again skipper Bhutia was in the thick of action as he fed substitute Ishfaq on the edge of the box who instantly guided the ball into the net with a neatly placed shot.