Bagan edge past A-I

Bagan edge past A-I
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

KOLKATA, March 26: Mohun Bagan struggled to play to their full potential, but still managed to scrape past a spirited Air-India by a solitary goal in the fifth National Football League at the Salt Lake Stadium here, on Monday.

Substitute striker Amar Ganguly struck the all-important goal midway through the second session to save the day for the glamour club in a match which seldom rose to great heights.

The green and maroon brigade were a pale shadow of themselves as they failed to play cohesively and were lucky to get away with a victory to consolidate their position on the points table.

Bagan’s Brazilian recruit Jose Ramirez Barreto set up the goal scoring move in the 70th minute as he broke through the defence and sent the ball towards an unmarked Amar Ganguly who simply headed the ball into the goal with none of the defenders in position.

After a barren opening session, the lone goal brought much relief for the Bagan supporters who had very little to cheer in the first-half with the team dishing out a lacklustre show. With this win, Bagan have logged 31 points from 16 matches so far, while Air-India have just 14 points to their credit from as many outings.

With striker RC Prakash, who had scored a hat-trick in the away match against Air-India not playing, the Bagan firing line lacked sting and the forwards could create very few openings in the first session.

Striker Flavio Lopez, who was fielded in the first eleven, seemed to be totally off-colour as he missed a few scoring opportunities, forcing coach Subrata Bhattacharya to replace him with Amar Ganguly midway through the first session.

Lopez got a chance to put his team in the lead as early as the ninth minute of the contest but his left-footed volley from inside the box flew over the crosspiece by a narrow margin.

The off-form Lopez was guilty of muffing another opportunity in the 26th minute when he managed to break through the defence but lost control of the ball at the goalmouth.

After the interval, the airmen from Mumbai unleashed a flurry of attacks from both flanks and put some pressure on the home team but they could not keep the momentum going after conceding the lone goal.