Bagan blank Arrows, keep title hopes alive
VASCO: Mohun Bagan kept their title hopes alive with a 2-0 victory over Indian Arrows in the I-League here on Tuesday.
Bagan, who had the lion’s share of exchanges and ball possession, scored through Aser Pierrick Dipanda Dicka (26th) and Akram Koghrabi (41st) to take their tally to 27 points from 16 matches.
They are now fourth on the table while the young Arrows, who finished their league engagement with 15 points from 18 matches, are at the bottom. Arrows coach Luis Norton de Matos made five changes from their loss against Aizawl in their previous game. Bagan made one change from their win against NEROCA in the last match.
Bagan controlled the proceeding and probed the rival half with steady flow of passes and mostly played the long ball to unsettle the rival defence. But in the 26th minute Jitendra Singh failed to clear a long ball inside the box, Dicka who was close to Jitendra found the net with a back volley to take his tally to 12 goals.
Bagan coach Sankarlal Chakraborty made their first change in the last quarter of the first half, bringing in Gurjinder Kumar in place of Ricky Lallawmawma and the move paid off as Kumar, from the left flank, sent a low cross into the box where Azharuddin Mallick failed to connect in but Akram Moghrabi who followed the move tapped the ball into the net in the 41st minute.
Arrows came up with occasional counter attacks and had the first chance to take the lead when a quick exchange between Nongdamba Naorem and Rahul Kannoly saw the former send a cross inside the box for Rahim Ali who squared the ball to Amarjit Singh but the latter’s low shot was put out by rival keeper Shilton Paul.