Kolkata: Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan eased past Dhaka’s Abahani Limited 3-1 to register its first win in Group E second round encounter at the Rabindra Sarobar stadium today. The Mariners found themselves a goal down in front of a sparse crowd, but made a stunning comeback to secure the first points in this year’s AFC Cup group stages.
Mohun Bagan coach Sanjay Sen yesterday spoke about taking the AFC Cup matches lightly, but as it turned out the Mariners displayed a great fighting spirit to register a morale boosting win ahead of derby.
Jeje Lalpekhlua (45th), Balwant Singh (48th) and Sony Norde (87th) canceled out Wales striker Jonathan Brown (21st)’s opener for the away side.
The result saw Bagan pocket three points from two games as they lost their opening encounter 1-2 against Bengaluru FC. Abahani Limited Dhaka meanwhile, succumbed to their second straight defeat to stay at the foot of the group. Bengaluru are top of the heap having won earlier by a 1-0 margin against Maldives’ Maziya Sports and Recreation.
As expected, Bagan made wholesale changes to the side that trounced Bengaluru 3-0 in the weekend. Anas Edathodika, Pritam Kotal, Souvik Chakraborty, Azharuddin Mallick and Darryl Duffy made way for Kingshuk Debnath, Sarthak Golui, Bikramjit Singh, Jeje and Balwant Singh.
It was the visitors who took the lead through striker Brown who made no mistake from an accurate pass from Mohammad Ziban.
Bagan got three great opportunities to equalize mid-way into the first half, but both Katsumi and Balwant missed the target.
Right on the brink of halftime, Bagan scored the equaliser through Jeje. After Balwant found Norde inside the area, the Haitian deftly passed the ball to a lurking Jeje who applied a left-footed first time to bulge the net.
Both teams went into a breather at 1-1 although the visitors dominated proceedings.
Bagan went ahead three minutes into the second half. Katsumi beat his marker to set up Balwant from the edge of the box, who made no mistake putting the ball beyond goalkeeper Sahidul Alam’s reach.
In the 62nd minute, Abahani Limited Dhaka almost drew level when the ball spent a lot of time precariously close to Bagan goal but all of the visiting players failed to get enough on it with Debjit Mazumdar gathering easily at the end.
Balwant could have found his name again on the score sheet, had it not been a brilliant save from Abahani goalkeeper Sahidul. Sahidul pulled off another good save before Norde sealed the fate of the match with a delectable strike at the far post.