ATK Mohun Bagan went face to face with Bengaluru FC in the 88th match of the Hero Indian Super League tonight at the Fatorda Stadium and the match ended 2-0 in favour of the Mariners. Usually a counter-attacking team, it was the Mariners’ first clean sheet in four games and they now inched closer to the top place in the points table.
Just a point away from the toppers, Mumbai City FC, the Mariners were at the top of their game tonight as they handed a 2-goal loss to the struggling Bengaluru FC. The match saw both its goals come in the first half and even after some resistance and attempts from the Blues, they could not score past Arindam Bhattacharya.
The match started with ATK Mohun Bagan meaning business from the first minute itself. They let the Blues have neither possession nor any rhythm. From the first minute, they continued their pressing tactics as Roy Krishna and his boys looked really dangerous from the start. They created chances but couldn’t get the breakthrough they were looking for until the 37th minute. The Blues defender Pratik Chaudhari made a rough tackle on the Fijian inside his own box and committed a foul, a yellow card and a subsequent penalty. Roy Krishna walked up to take the penalty and slotted in a perfect goal to the left of the keeper.
The lead was doubled just minutes after that, as Marcelo Pereira aka Marcelinho slotted in another beautiful goal from a freekick. The freekick expert slotted in the ball from just outside the box as David Williams won a foul for his team at a tricky spot. The Brazilian curved in a left-footed delivery into the near post, up and over the wall and it was too perfect for the goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu to pull off a save.
The first half saw a spirited ATK Mohun Bagan thoroughly dominate Bengaluru FC and attain a two-goal lead. The second half started with the Mariners putting pressure again as they had an amazing goalscoring opportunity in the 49th minute. David Williams took a corner from the left side which ended up in the possession of Sandesh Jhingan after a couple of touches. He made a decent attempt towards the goal but it was denied by a brilliant save from the goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.
There were other attempts at goal but the best was the 88th-minute attempt by Sunil Chhetri. After receiving a good ball from Udanta Singh, Sunil Chhetri’s dummy helped him dodge Sandesh Jhingan and Chhetri then unleashed a shot from outside the box. The goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya dove to his right to pull off an important save for his team. The match bore no further goals in the extra times too.
Hero of the Match: Marcelinho
The DHL Winning Pass of the Match Award was awarded to Roy Krishna, while Marcelo Pereira gets the Hero of the Match Award for doubling the lead.
Bengaluru FC is now at the 6th position in the table, with 19 points from 17 matches. However, the Mariners would be really happy with their performance tonight. With the win, they reached 33 points from 16 matches, just one point short of Mumbai City FC. They face Jamshedpur FC in their next match on the 14th of February, while Bengaluru FC faces the current league toppers the next day.
