The Hindu : Sport / Football : Bagan beats Fransa

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Friday, Mar 17, 2006

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Sport - Football

Bagan beats Fransa

KOLKATA : Former champion Mohun Bagan beat Frans Pax of Goa 2-0 for its first win of the National Football League here at the Salt Lake Stadium on Thursday evening. The home side struck form under its new coach, Biswajit Bhattacharya, after playing five draws and two loses in the previous seven rounds.

The win helped Bagan move out of the relegation zone as it netted eight points from equal number of matches.

On the other hand Fransa remained with three points from seven matches.

Good show

Mohun Bagan, which has been struggling with its scoring, havingmanaged only two goals in previous seven matches, put up a rejuvenated performance.

The team attacked with Sushil Kumar Singh as its spearhead. Supported ably by two under-strikers in Nigerian Ibrahim and Kofi Agbesi of Benin, Singh opened the scoring in the 24th minute of the match.

Fine understanding

Six minutes later Agbesi doubled the lead. The combination showed fine understanding as Ibrahim and Sushil Singh played a sequence of quick passes to release Agbesi unmarked inside the box.

The Benin player made no mistake with his right-footed drive to beat Fransa custodian Virender Singh all ends up.

The home team came close to widening the margin at least on three occasions in the second session but the goal remained elusive as Virender Singh put a tight vigil under the Fransa bar.

The Goa team had its chance of reducing the margin in the 70th minute. But the crosspiece came in the way as Bello Rasaq, reached by a Santa Singh freekick, saw his header coming off the framework. Agbesi was named the man-of-the-match. — Sports Reporter

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