Valencia rally to
hold Mohun Bagan
Mohun Bagan paid dearly for some sloppy defending and surrendered a two-goal lead to finish 2-2 with
Valencia of Maldives in an exciting Asian Football Confederation Champions League second round match in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Leading by a goal at the breather, the home side made the scoreline 2-0 early in the second-half, before Velencia rallied strongly and struck twice within a space of eight minutes to draw parity in the first leg match.
Sunil Chhetry and George Ekeh were the scorers for Bagan,
while skipper Mohammed Nizam and Ali Ashfaq found the target
for the visitors in the near-empty Salt Lake stadium.
The teams meet in the second leg at Male on October 22.
The locals began well, establishing quick control over the
proceedings, and were districtly unlucky not to open up a lead
in the third minute as Brazilian Jose Ramirez Barreto's firm
shot kissed the post before going out.
But they maintained the momentum and teenage striker Chhetry
scored a beauty in the 24th minute, soon after coming in place
of Renedy Singh.
Following a floating Lolendra Singh corner, Chhetri
displayed fine marksmanship as he jumped and let go a snap
header which dropped in front of Valencia custodian Hussain
Habeeb before going into goal.
Bagan continued to dictate terms after the break and buttressed their lead in the 50th minute. This time a George Ekeh right-footer found the target after he received the ball from a combined move on the right flank (2-0).
Two goals down, the Maldivies team sprang into action and, taking advantage of the absence of Baichung Bhutia, who was withdrawn in the second session, forced a number of moves, with Ali Syam, Ali Omar and Ali Asfaq combining well. Valencia finally reduced the margin after a couple of minutes, scoring the second goal through Md. Najim, whose powerful free-kick hit a Bagan defender and went into the net. (2-1).
The goal was a shot in the arm for Valencia, who finally drew level in the 58th minute. This time striker Ali Asfaq dribbled past two Bagan defenders and shot home with Bagan 'keeper Rajat Dastidar making a vain attempt to save (2-2).
After Valencia restored parity, Bagan had chances to regain the lead but some stout defending by the Valencia defenders denied them success.
