I-League: Spoils shared between Mohun Bagan & Mohammedan Sporting

Mohun Bagan AC and Mohammedan Sporting Club played out a goalless draw in their round eleven clash of the I-League at the Saltlake Stadium in Kolkata on Wednesday evening. The second Kolkata derby in four days was witnessed by a crowd of almost 30,000 but neither side did enough to win the match as they were guilty of some wasteful finishing.

The result kept Mohammedan Sporting in seventh spot with 12 points from 10 outings and they also kept their third straight clean sheet while Mohun Bagan are now behind them with one point less from the same number of matches.

Mohun Bagan were looking to bounce back from their loss to archrivals East Bengal and could have had a dream start when skipper Odafe Okolie found Eric Muranda free just outside the box but the Kenyan’s powerful effort narrowly missed the target. Minutes later, Odafa manufactured a chance for himself as he outmuscled a couple of Mohammedan Sporting defenders but uncharacteristically put his effort wide.

Mohammedan Sporting were struggling to get into the game as they played a lot of mis-passes. It wasn’t until the midway point of the first session that they had their first attempt on goal as Ishfaq Ahmed tested Sandip Nandy with a scorching shot from 35 yards out. That effort brought Mohammedan Sporting to life with Tolgay Ozbey also running at the Mohun Bagan defence but the Australian couldn’t hit the target.

But it was Mohun Bagan who looked more likely to score as Odafe looked dangerous. The Nigerian though was not clinical in front of goal as his efforts were either straight at Mohammedan Sporting custodian Luis Xavier Barreto or off target.

Mohammedan Sporting coach Moshood Bola Abulaziz made a change at the interval as Ajay Singh replaced Jerry Zirsanga but it didn’t really make an impact as the black and whites struggled to create chances. Mohun Bagan were not creating too many openings as Odafe was getting outnumbered in the second half. Japanese Katsumi Yusa did have a half chance after some nice build-up by Odafe but the former ONGC players effort was blocked.

Mohammedan Sporting saw more of the ball in the final half hour but were only limited to shots from distance with only Rakesh Masih going close. Mohun Bagan coach Karim Bencherifa brought on Ram Malik, C.S. Sabeeth and Shankar Oraon in search of a late winner but the green-and-maroon brigade never really threatened to score.

At the other end though Mohammedan Sporting could have won the game in stoppage time. Mohun Bagan needlessly gave the ball away in their own half to Mohammedan Sporting substitute Josimar who passed to Ajay Singh but the former JCT striker failed to score despite being in a one-on-one situation with Sandip Nandy.

(Report & Photo courtesy AIFF Media)