The Hindu : Sport / Football : Bagan beats Viva Kerala

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Bagan beats Viva Kerala

Principal Correspondent

KOZHIKODE: Cheered on by the biggest crowd of the season so far at the Corporation Stadium, Viva Kerala played its heart out. But that wasn’t enough to stop Mohun Bagan, which won the ONGC I-League football encounter 2-0 here on Sunday.

Captain Baichung Bhutia and substitute Ishfaq Ahmed were the scorers.

The scoreline doesn’t quite reflect the way Viva fought in the match.

The Kochi-based team, in fact, got more chances to score than Bagan, but it couldn’t convert even one of them because of a combination of poor finishing by its strikers, fine defence by Bagan, spearheaded by Brazilian Douglas Santos, who was named Man of the Match, and a superlative display under the bar by Sangram Mukherjee.

Keen to attack

Right from the kick-off, both the teams were keen to attack.

The Kolkata side nearly scored in the 22nd minute but for a goalline save by Tutu George and two minutes later, the action moved to the other side of the ground as Baba Tunde, Viva’s Nigerian striker, dribbled past the Bagan defenders and shot at the goal, but Sangram proved equal to the task.

In the 35th minute, Bagan drew first blood through the Indian skipper.

An excellent cross from the right by Habibur Rahman Mondal found striker Jose Barreto, who, from right in front of the goal, gave a perfect header to Bhutia to slot the ball home.

Bagan’s second goal came much against the run of the play in the 89th minute with Ishfaq striking from the edge of the box after being fed by Bhutia.

The last time the two teams met in the I-League, Viva had won 3-1 in Kolkata. Bagan took its tally to 17 points from 11 games, while Viva has 12.

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