Mohun Bagan beat JCT 2-0 in Durand Cup today played in Ambedkar Stadium and reached semi finals where they will play against Mahindra United who today won 2-0 against East Bengal.
Mohun Bagan was in an attacking frame of mind from the start of the game and got the first goal in 4th minute when Barreto nicely took a left footed side volley from James Singh free kick that beat goalkeeper and went to back of the net. JCT made their first positive move in 8th minute but Surkumar brilliantly blocked the shot of Baljit. In 12th minute, Micky took two back-to-back shots but both went out of target.
Barreto scored the 2nd goal in 14th minute. From Micky pass, Chiddi brilliantly backheaded the ball to Barreto who made a down the middle run to enter penalty box and placed his right footer past onrushing goalkeeper to make it 2-0.
Like last match, today also Chiddi-Barreto combination worked wonders for Mohun Bagan and within 2 minutes of the 2nd goal, Barreto gave a brilliant pass to Chiddi but his effort was saved by Karanjit Singh.
In 19th minute, Barreto was replaced by Branco. When we talked to Barreto after match, he said, "I was feeling slight pain in my left thigh and after we scored 2 goals, I came to coach and said about this and so I was replaced. I also did not want to take any chance, as if the pain aggravated, I could not have played in the semi final. Right now, I feel that I will be able to play against Mahindra." Regarding this, coach Karim said, "Actually since there is no time gap between the two matches, the team for the 2nd match are not getting time for any warmup. Today Barreto got this slight injury because of this. Also we are playing games with only 1 day gap in between whereas JCT got quite a few days gap before today's match." This was indeed another great decision by coach Karim.
In 37th minute, Chiddi made a solo run down left flank and dribbled past 3 players but was brought down inside penalty box. However, James Singh failed to score from the spot kick when his shot hit the upright. From counter attack, Mickey passed the ball to Surkumar who cut in and took a left footed shot that went out.
On the stroke of half time, JCT made two significant attacks. In 43rd minute, James made a brilliant tackle on Sakatar Singh on edge of the box to avert danger and in next minute, Sakatar's left footed shot hit side net.
The half time result was 2-0 in favor of Mohun Bagan.
JCT looked more positive in 2nd half and in 51st minute, Sakatar entered box from left side and as he was about to dribble past Surkumar, the latter nicely intercepted the ball. Mohun Bagan got another chance in next minute, when Sangram's goalkick went to Branco who chest trapped the ball and gave to James, and in turn James took a cracking left footed shot that ballooned over crossbar.
Sangram again made a timely save in 56th minute, when he dived to his left and saved a shot from Jagpreet. Chiddi had two very good chances to score in next 2 minutes, both times pass came from Branco. In the first one, Branco headed the ball towards Chiddi inside penalty box, Chiddi diving forward headed the ball that was saved by Karanjit Singh. In the next minute itself, Branco dribbled past two players, entered box from left side and went past goalkeeper and passed the ball to Chiddi, who took two shots, both of them being blocked by defender and goalkeeper.
In 64th minute, Jagpreet took a shot that deflected off Dipak and ballooned up and went out for corner. The corner went straight to Baljit Sahni, but his head from close range went straight to Sangram.
In 66th minute, Micky-Chiddi combination resulted in a cross from right side that went to unmarked Branco, but he blasted the shot over barpost.
Both teams then made couple of changes. Karim brought in Subho Kumar and Santa Kumar replacing Kuluthungan and Snehasish.
Chiddi who tried a lot but was very unfortunate in not getting his name on the scoresheet. In 75th minute, from counter attack, Branco got a loose ball from Dipak and gave a pass to Santa Kumar in left flank, Santa made a run and then gave a low cross to Chiddi, who pushed the ball that beat Karanjit but was saved from goalline from JCT defender.
Last 10 minutes, JCT put up pressure, but the Mohun Bagan defenders put up good resistance and finally MOhun Bagan won the match 2-0.
In 1st semi final tomorrow, Churchill Brothers will meet Dempo Sports Club, both semi finals will kick off at 5.30 pm. Both semi finals and final will be telecasted live in DD Sports.
