Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan pulled off a close 2-1 win over Churchill Brothers, Goa in their 14th round tie of the ONGC I-League played here on Thursday. Bagan took his tally 24 points after having seven wins from 14 outings, while Churchill has 26 with eight wins from the same number of outings.
Bagan shot into an early lead, three minutes into the game, through skipper Baichung Bhutia. Habibur Rehman doubled the lead in the 31st minute off a flag-kick. Once again Bhutia Baichung head-flicked the low corner cross and Habibur made no mistake to slot it home making the scoreline read 2-0.
Churchill pulled one back in the 37th minute through Mboyo Iyomi after finding a defence splitting pass from menacing Odafe Okolie on a goalmouth melee. Vashum’s minus found Odafe inside the ‘D’, marked by four Bagan defenders, Odafe passed the ball to Mboyo Iyomi who volleyed it home.
Bhutia had the best chance when he dodged past beat the Churchill custodian, but failed to guide the ball into an empty net. Bagan was leading 2-1 at the time of breather.
The second half saw Churchill players pushing for the equaliser. Mboyo and Odafe tried their hard at the upfront and to put Bagan defenders on tenterhooks, as Vashum and Roberts maintained the pressure with incessant supply of balls from the flanks.
But their effort went in vain as they couldn’t be able to produce the much-needed equaliser. Habibur had a brilliant outing as he marked Odafe so well that the Nigerian didn’t get an inch to score even a one. Habibur was later rewarded man-of-the match for his fine performance.
TEAMS
Mohun Bagan: Sangram Mukherjee, Subhasish Roy Chowdhury, N.S. Manju, Habibur Rehman Mondal, Rauf Khan (Tapan Maity 57), Jose Ramirez Barreto, Douglas Silva (P.C. Lalawmpuia 54), Peter Odafe, Bhaichung Bhutia, Lalkamal Bhowmick (Anit Ghosh 83), N. Mohan Raj.
Churchill Brothers: Vinay Singh, Govin Mojranginem, Thockchom Naoba Singh (Vales Jaison 87), Mboyo Iyomi, Okolie Odafe, Khan Thang Paite (Durai Raju 76), Reisangmi Vashum (Mashangva Zenith Genius 70), Chandam Singh, Robert Lalthlamuana, Gouramanngi Moirangthem, Ogba Kalu Nnanna.
Man of the Match: Habibur Rehman Mondal
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