Davide rises as Pune end Kolkata’s run

Sourav Ganguly has played long enough to know even the best teams have bad days. So after being outclassed 1-3 by FC Pune City, Atletico de Kolkata’s most recognised face said the loss wasn’t worrying. “In a long tournament off days happen. Today was one of those days,” said the former India captain.

It finally took the father-son combination of Franco and Davide Colomba to propel FC Pune City, travelling without David Trezeguet, to dismantle ATK’s invincibility at home. With an assist and a goal, Davide led the FC Pune City’s charge off the field too as the entire team ran to where head coach Franco, serving a touchline ban, was sitting. Atletico de Kolkata fans, still numbering around 22,000 for a weekday match, had to settle for silence for a change.

While Dudu Omagbemi gave Pune their first goal nothing quite said it won’t be Kolkata’s day like Kostas Katsouranis’s goal. Given a free run down the centre, the Greek launched into a shot that sent the ball curling away from Kolkata goalkeeper Subhasish Roy Chowdhury who was left rooted to his position.

“It was world-class. Katsouranis had worked on this during practice and he pulled it off,” said Dudu later. The Greek midfielder however claimed he had scored similar goals in the past too.

Davide’s free-kick struck Kinshuk Debnath, before finding the back of the net. “This is football,” said ATK coach Antonio Lopez Habas after the loss. “We got 6-7 chances but could score only once while they got around four chances to score three,” he said.