The Hindu : Sport / Football : Big win for Mohun Bagan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 03, 2004

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Sport - Football

Big win for Mohun Bagan

KOLKATA, OCT. 2. Mohun Bagan moved into the semifinals of the 110th IFA Shield here on Saturday. In its final group `A' league game, Mohun Bagan thrashed Renown Sports Club (Sri Lanka) 9-0 to finish with four points from two games. It was the first match for the Sri Lankan team in this meet. The victory margin is a record for Mohun Bagan against any foreign side. The winner led 6-0 at halftime.

Myanmar Finance and Revenue FC, which drew with Mohun Bagan 1-1 in the opening match on Thursday, would need to beat the Sri Lankans by 10-0 or above to top the group to avoid a meeting with the group B champion.

Roberto Mendes Silva (3), Amit Das (2), Dulal Biswas, Basudeb Mondal, Sunil Chettry and Noel Wilson were successful for Mohun Bagan. Renown SC proved to be a punching bag to Bagan. After some initial exchanges, Mohun Bagan struck at the end of the first quarter of the first half. Working his way up with short and crisp passes, Tomba Singh put Chettry on the left with a deft forward pass. The latter, instead of going ahead, back-heeled the ball to an advancing Dulal Biswas who found the net with ease.

Ten minutes later Basudeb Mondal and Chettry moved up in tandem before Chettry's shot came off the goalkeeper. Mondal, following the ball, placed home.

Noel Wilson floated a long lob from the right to Roberto who trapped and shot in a right-footer two minutes later. Two minutes later, Mehtab Hossain's low free-kick from right was deflected in by Chettry for the fourth. In the 35th minute, Chettry was brought down inside the box on the left and the resultant penalty was converted by Roberto. Three minutes later, substitute Amit Das shot in following a free-kick on the right.

The Sri Lankans were never in picture throughout the game. Two quick goals in the opening minutes of the second session thanks to Wilson (48th) and Amit Das (56th) made the Mohun Bagan players take things easy. The ninth goal came in the 67th minute through a spot-kick converted by Roberto. Thereafter, Mohun Bagan toyed with the visiting team till the final whistle.

Kingfisher East Bengal would take on Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad Krirachakra in a group B match on Sunday. — Our Special Correspondent

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