Dempo thump Kolkata giant Mohun Bagan 3-0, occupy 2nd position in I-League table

Dempo thumped Kolkata giant Mohun Bagan by a clear 3-0 margin yesterday in the 8^th round encounter of I-League at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, Fatorda today, climbed up in the second position of I-League ladder just behind East Bengal. Joaquim Abranches scored the first in the 39^th minute of the game, just after 2 minutes Ryuji Sueoka doubled the lead from the spot, Godwin Franco scored the third in the 70^th minute of the match.

Armando Colaso made few changes in his side due to the suspension of experienced gamemaker Climax Lawrence & injury of Koko Sakibo. He introduced Joaquaim Abranches & Anthony Perera from the beginning. The newly appointed Mohun Bagan coach also made few changes, he introduced experienced customer Mehrajuddin Wadoo in central defence in the place of injured Eche & Biswajit Saha in the place of injured Syed Rahim Nabi.

Both the sides started on a very positive note. The result might have been a different story as Mohun Bagan fought equally before swallowing the first goal.

Within 3 minutes, Clifford Miranda attempted a volley almost from the 40 yards away, beat visiting custodian Shilton Paul but was denied by the crossbar. Just after that incident Odafa ran past two defenders, passed the ball in front of empty goal but unfortunately no teammates were in there to place the ball inside. In the 9^th minute, Sabeeth missed a sitter following a goal bound through ball from Odafa.

The visitors started to dominate the game and started to create chance after chance. Odafa was fouled just outside the box in the 19^th minute of the game due to a poor tackle by Rowlison Rodriguez; the referee gave a free kick to Mohun Bagan from a decent position, Odafa himself took it & ballooned it over the post.

Fabulously, Odafa dribbled past five opposition defenders & put a great ball in upcoming Lalrin Fela in the 34th minute, but he shockingly failed to find the target.

Armando Colaso had introduced speedy Romeo Fernandez in the place of Anthony Perera, which became effective for his side. Joaquim scored the first goal for the home side against the run of the play following a cross from Romeo from the right side of the box in the 39^th minute of the game. Biswajit Saha, the left back of Mohun Bagan, let Romeo run with the ball & central defender Mehraj also failed to clear.

Two minutes after tha,t Peter Carvalho of Dempo was clearly tackled from the behind by Nirmal Chhetri of Mohun Bagan and referee Balusubraniam pointed towards the spot & warned Nirmal by brandishing a yellow card. Ryouji Suoeka didn’t make any mistake to convert it from the spot & doubled the lead for the hosts.

Mohun Bagan started to counter aggressively from the beginning of the second half, Odafa tested the Dempo custodian Kuttimani in the 52^nd minute of the game, who was introduced due to the injury of Subashish Roychowdhury, but could only get a corner due to some fine keeping.

Biswajit Saha of Mohun Bagan got his marching orders following a second yellow for his tackle to Godwin Franco. The foul was not intentional, it was quite unfortunate at this meant Mohun Bagan were down to 10 men & paralyzed for the rest of the period.

Its very difficult to survive with a man short against a mighty side like Dempo in their home. Armando Colaso introduced the ex-EPL star Rohan Rickkets in the 60^th minute and pressure started to mount on the Mohun Bagan defence.

Godwin Franco sealed the match by scoring the third for his side via a world class volley from almost 35 yards outside the box in the 70^th minute of the game.

Currently Dempo are trailing league leaders East Bengal with 19 points in their kitty from 8 matches while Mohun Bagan stepped down at number six with 11 points from the same number of matches. Moreover, Mohun Bagan have failed to their last seven matches against Dempo in any kind of competition. The Kolkata derby is knocking the door, reminding that here a win could boost the visitors.