Mohun Bagan’s hopes for the iLeague title suffered a blow Sunday with a 2-1 road loss to Prayag United. Vincent and Deepak scored for Prayag while Anwar scored the lone goal for Bagan. Prayag outplayed Bagan thanks to ex-mariners – Deepak, James and Sankar Oraon. Bagan’s second consecutive loss from three matches in the second leg makes Bagan behind Prayag now – and is now with 27 points from 16 matches and has moved to the fifth position of the leagu table.

Prayag has dashed Jose Barreto’s hopes of a dream return and winning the iLeague titl before he hangs up his boots. Vincent had given Prayag a lead in the 16th minute when he headed the ball into the goal from a James Singh corner. Sangram had taken away his eyes from the ball during this goal.

In the 19th minute Anwar scored a goal from 9 yards to find the equaliser.

Soon Prayag started operating from down the middle – and Bagan players, in absence of Nabi Jewel and Masih had no ideas how to stop them. There was a surprised change in Bagan’s team in the 40th minute when Gouranga Dutta replaced manish Bhargav.

However the first half ended in 1-1.

In the second half Deepak moved to the right to stop Lima’s movements while Arnab and Razzac went for a double coverage for Odafa. It seemed Prayag coach did not bother covering Jose Barreto who is slow and seem to have lost his touch this season!

Deepak scored a brilliant goal in the s64th minute. His 30 yards shot had beaten Sangram, hit the far post and went in.

The other changes that were done for Bagan were equally surprising – Pradeep for Ashim and Snehasish for Lima. None of them clicked and Prayag ruled the rest of the match to ensure they secure 3 vital points.

Refereeing was also not upto the mark. Once Odafa was in a scoring position and the referee had halted the game for reasons no body understood. Once Yakubu fall down without any reason and Pratap Singh gave a foul in favour of Prayag.

This is the second consecutive game refereeing went wrong against Bagan and in this game also Bagan was deprived of a penalty.

But perhaps it is time the TD must think of using Barreto as a replacement.

Sporting clube de Goa outsmarted Mohun Bagan in today’s iLeague match. Sporting’s Keita and Kalu scored two goals while Rakesh Masih scored the lone goal for Bagan.

Sporting did well in  the following activities –

a) Playing physical games to ensure Odafa and Barreto not getting the upper hand in attackin third

b) used two wings to operate well

With Nabi out due to injury SCG got an advantage.  Moreover Odafa and Barreto were covered well. As a result SCG got control of the game through out the game. Sangram did well to save three goals in the first half.

SCG also got benefits from poor refereeing. Referee Sri Krishna failed to save Bagan’s players getting hit (surprisingly in the first leg also similar incident happened and Bagan players did not get enough protection). there were two occasions when Bagan was deprived of a penalty – once when Odafa was pulled down and the other time it was Snehasish.

Assistant Refereeing was equally poor – once the SCG goalie caught the ball outside the penalty box and this was over looked.

However, the day was of SCG – and they beat bagan is all aspects.

Mohun Bagan : Sangram, Subhasish, Kingshuk, Anwar, Nabi (Dhanarajan 28′), Manish, Masih, Zeleny (Lima 78′), Snehasish, Barreto, Odafa (Pradeep 82′).

 

 

 

Mohun Bagan win the first game of the second leg against Churchill Brothers by 3-2. Odafa scored all the three goals for Bagan while Barreto alone wasted three opportunities to score. Once Jewel’s shot and once Odafa’s shot hit the cross bar. For Bagan Sangram saved a goal at the dying moments.

Bagan had opted a 4-5-1 strategy against Churchill Brothers but defensive lapse led to conceding a goal in the 4th minute of the game. Bagan came back brilliantly and controlled the midfield. Jewel shot his the cross bar and went out in the 6th minute.

Churchill also went for counter attacks but Bagan defense did well to foil the moves. In the 18th minute Nabi moved from right and his cross found Odafa who chest trapped the ball and placed it to the left of Arindam.

In the 28th minute Odafa bull dozed into CB defense but was unlucky as his shot hit the cross bar and went out.

In the 35th minute Subhasish was booked for unknown reasons. A television replay showed Zeleny fouled a CB player but Subhasish got th booking.

In the second half Barreto came in place of Jewel and Bagan moved to 4-4-2. This worked for Bagan as well as Odafa and Barreto started testing CB defense and they collapsed from time to time.

However Kingshuk got a booked for an unnecessary foul in the 48th minute.

Barreto got two consecutive chances to score but failed. Had it been Jose Barreto 3 years back- both could have been sure goals!

In the 60th minute Manish Bhargav replaced Sur and started operating well from the right flank.

In the 73rd minute Odafa got a pass from Masih and placed the ball well to make it 2-1.

In the 76th minute Barreto was fouled in CB penalty box and Bagan was awarded with a penalty. Odafa took the shot and this time he placed it on the right of Arindam to make it 3-1.

In the 81st minute Henry reduced the margin from a defensive lapse of Bagan.

in the 86th minute injured Rakesh was replaced by Souvik.

In the 94th minute Sangram saves a power shot of Balan.

Barreto and Odafa did well to guide Bagan into the win within the next one minute .

Mohun Bagan: Sangram, Surkumar (Manish Bhargav), Kingshuk, Anwar, Nabi, Jewel (Barreto), Zeleni, Masih (Souvik), Subhasis, Snehasis, Odafa