Mohun Bagan registered their third win in a span of seven days. They were under pressure initially when the fans were not even settled in their seats and they were down by a goal. In the 5th minute, a cross from Jitin M.S. hit the arm of Dippendu when he slid into the ground to stop the cross. The Highlander’s new recruit, Juric, made no mistake from the spot (0–1).
North East also came close to doubling the lead when Bemammer’s header hit the post. Mohun Bagan was resettled by those incidents, and they up the tempo in attack. Joni Kauko-led midfield held control of the game. In that period, Liston Colaco tried one of his knuckle shots, which was fisted over by Mirshad, and Joni Kauko headed over the cross bar from a Petratos centre from the left.
Mohun Bagan equilized on the 45th minute when Joni Kauko found unmarked Liston on top of the box on the left-hand side, and he took a shot from there in the near post, which ended up in the net (1-1). Mohun Bagan took the lead a couple of minutes later when Dimi’s freekick was flicked by Yuste towards Joni Kauko, who just served that ball on plate to Cummings, who just tapped that into the net from 3 yards (2-1).
North East again levelled the score in the 50th minute (2-2) when Nestor headed the ball towards Juric, who then surpassed Dippendu and took a first-time shot into the net. But Mohun Bagan never back down from the attack and again restored their lead in the 53rd minute when Liston found Cummings on top of the box, who this time forward a vital ball towards Petratos, who then took a shot from outstep of his right foot to beat Mirshad (3-2).
They again increased the lead in the 58th minute when Joni Kauko made a defence cutting through ball for Sahal, and he expertly put that into the net. Joni Kauko proved that his inclusion in the squad was fully justified by his stellar performance. He correctly judged the player of the match yesterday.
Mohun Bagan altered their midfield combination with Kauko and Avishek in the XI and left Dipak Tangri and Anirudh Thapa on the bench as they played back-to-back matches in less than 70 hours. They needed some time to adjust, and with the introduction of Anwar Ali and Asish Rai in the second half in place of Sahal and Dippendu, they completely closed the gap in their defence.
North East, on the other hand, looked sharp in the attack but always looked vulnerable in their defence, as they used to be throughout this ISL. They are more of a first-half team, and when the match went on to the later part, they were completely out of ideas. Their coach needs to concentrate on this if they want to secure their spot in the top six.
Mohun Bagan, with this win, moves onto the second spot in the points table with 29 points in 14 matches and is within breathing distance of Odisha FC, whom they meet on Saturday at Bhubaneswar. Odisha sits at the top of the table with 31 points in 15 matches. Both teams will aim to secure their top spot in the table.
Ratings:
Vishal Kaith [7.5]
Héctor Yuste [7]
Subhasish Bose [7.5]
Dippendu Biswas [6]
Abhishek Suryavanshi [7]
Joni Kauko [9]
Sahal Abdul Samad [8]
Manvir Singh [7]
Liston Colaco [8]
Jason Cummings [7.5]
Dimitri Petratos [8.5]
Anwar Ali [6.5]
Asish Rai [6]
Deepak Tangri [6.5]
Armando Sadiku [6]
Lalrinliana Hnamte [6.5]
Attendance: 29,888
