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29-time champions Mohun Bagan made a winning start to their Calcutta Football League championship round campaign as they defeated Tollygunge Agragami 1-0 at the Salt Lake Stadium on Monday. The goal came from Jeje Lalpekhlua, who successfully a converted a penalty in the closing stages of the first half.
Subhash Bhowmick named a strong eleven with Japanese Katsumi Yusa being the only foreigner in it while the club’s marquee foreigner, Pierre Boya of Cameroon, was only on the bench.
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Bhowmick employed a 4-2-3-1 system but was up against Mohun Bagan legend Subroto Bhattacharya, who is the technical director of Tollygunge. Bhattacharya seemed to be winning the tactical battle in the first half as despite dominating possession Mohun Bagan couldn’t get behind Tollygunge’s backline.
Tollygunge also created the best opening of the game after some fine individual skills from Daniel Bidemi and should have been in front but for some poor finishing on their part and fine goalkeeping from Mohun Bagan skipper Shilton Paul.
However the Mariners were awarded a penalty when new signing Jeje was brought down inside the box by Deepak Mondal junior. Jeje coolly scored from the spot on his debut much to the relief of the thousands of Mohun Bagan supporters.
The possession statistics were much more similar in the second period but Tollygunge didn’t have too many openings to equalise. Mohun Bagan on the other hand were wasteful with CS Sabeeth squandering a golden chance while new signing Balwant Singh also failed to score despite having a good opportunity after coming on as a substitute.
Bhowmick won’t be happy with the performance but will be satisfied to have three points on the board unlike arch-rivals East Bengal who lost their opener against Mohammedan Sporting on Sunday.
This was the only fixture of the day and Mohun Bagan next face Police AC on Sunday while Tollygunge clash with Southern Samity on Saturday.
