Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan fought back from a goal down to beat Bangladesh’s Abahani Limited Dhaka 3-1 in the AFC Cup at the Rabindra Sarovar Stadium in Kolkata on Tuesday. With this win, Mohun Bagan opened their points tally on the group stage of the tournament.
With five changes in the squad, Mohun Bagan did not get off the best of starts with Abahani going in attack mode from the beginning. The away team struck in the 21st minute when Jonathan David Brown got on the end of Mohammed Ziban’s pass and put it in.
But Bagan slowly grew into the match with Jeje Lalpekhlua giving them the much-needed equaliser in first half injury-time, thanks to some great combination play from Sony Norde and Balwant Singh. That gave then the much-needed impetus as three minutes in the second half, Katsumi Yusa made a run into the box and passed it on to Balwant Singh who put the Kolkata giants in front with a rasping shot.
The match became much more open as both teams had chances at their ends. Finally, it was Norde who put the result to rest, bamboozling defenders and getting his team’s third goal of the night.
This is Mohun Bagan’s first win in Group E of the tournament after Bengaluru FC beat them 2-1 on March 14. Earlier in the day, Bengaluru beat Maziya FC 1-0.
Brief scores:
Mohun Bagan 3 (Jeje Lalpekhlua, Balwant Singh, Sony Norde) beat Abahani 1 (Jonathan Brown)
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