BARASAT: Former champions Mohun Bagan rode on a Balwant Singh first-half strike and held their nerves after being reduced to 10 players to secure a hard-fought 1-0 win over Churchill Brothers in their 10th I-League opener on Sunday.
After some half-hearted attempts, Mohun Bagan’s ‘lucky charm’ Balwant gave them the lead with his 28th minute header against the only Goan team in the league.
Making a comeback after nine months, the fit-again Balwant found himself unmarked as he capitalised on Pritam Kotal’s precise cross from the right flank before heading the ball into the net.
Down to 10 men in the second-half, the threat of conceding remained till the last minute with some swift freekicks, but Mohun Bagan returned lucky to earn full three points in their opening match.
The 2015 champions were reduced to 10 players in the 64th minute after a second yellow to Subhasish Bose for his foul on Seriton Fernandes.
Subhasish was warned for the first time in the 55th minute after he had pushed down the visitors captain Keenan Almeida near the touchline.
Churchill had a brilliant opportunity to equalise in the 70th minute when Seriton went past Prabir Das and had only Debjit Majumder to beat under the bar, but his shot went off the mark, much to the home team’s respite.
Four minutes left for the regulation time, Agnelo’s powerful shot missed the target after Churchill earned a freekick following Pronay Halder’s foul.
With a minute to go, Churchill came the closest to earn a draw with Angelo Colaco’s shot, but the crosspiece came in the way followed by a huge roar from the home supporters.
The 2012-13 champions Churchill Brothers, who were making a comeback into the top division after four seasons, would certainly return disappointed as they came close to scoring on many occasions.
Churchill also were dealt a blow when captain Keenan Almeida suffered a bruise after a challenge with Balwant and had to be stretchered off in the 17th minute, but he returned with a bandaged head to pep up his troops.
Mohun Bagan had a fine chance in the 24th minute to double the lead but Darryl Duffy’s shot was collected superbly by the Churchill goalkeeper Priyant Singh with a diving save on the edge of the box.
The much anticipated battle between the two newcomers, Chennai City FC and Minerva Punjab FC failed to provide a winner as it finished 0-0 at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Chennai, thus enabling both the teams to notch their first ever Hero I-League point.
Chennai City decided to line up in a 4-5-1 with Debabrata Roy and Joseph Clemente playing as full-backs while Dharmaraj Ravanan and Aniyeche Echezona were the central defenders. Dhanpal Ganesh, Denson Devadas and Haroon Amiri were deployed in midfield with Brazilian striker Charles De Souza leading upfront.
For Minerva, Ravi Kumar started in goal with Nigerian defender Loveday Okechukwu and Arashpreet Singh in defence. Germanpreet Singh and Vinit Rai were in midfield while captain Manandeep Singh and Joel Sunday assumed the attacking mantle in a 4-4-2 formation.
It was the visitors who started the game on a better note but Chennai City fashioned the first real chance of the game in the 5th minute but no one could latch on to a square-pass from Charles.
Changing over, Minerva decided to make two changes — Uttam Rai and Vishal Kumar coming in for Nuruddin and Gurjinder Kumar.
But it did not seem to have an effect as the home side seemed to be creating more chances. Charles went close in the 47th minute while Amiri did well to get into the Minerva box before the alert defenders cleared the danger around the 60-minute mark.
In an effort to open their account, Marcos Tank was introduced in place of Charles for Chennai City. The burly Brazilian got into a couple of promising positions towards the end of the game but could not hit the target.
Minerva now face a long trip to Aizawl while Chennai face the daunting task of taking on the defending champions Bengaluru FC in the next round.
Earlier in another match Mumbai FC defeated DSK Shivajians to claim all 3 points. Thoi Singh scored in the 21st minute for his side.
