Kolkata: ATK Mohun Bagan stays in the hunt of knockout berth with a easrly win of 2-0 against Indian Navy. YThe opener came from Lenny Rodriguez, with Kiyan Nassiri scoring the second.
Lenny Rodriguez opened the scoring for the Green & Maroons while Kiyan Nassiri got the second of the game, which was otherwise played at a pedestrian pace. As a result, ATKMB now have seven points from their four Group B games while the Navy have just one, with one more game left to play and are practically out of the tournament.
ATK Mohun Bagan’s Spanish coach Juan Ferrando made eight changes side from the one that started against Emami East Bengal (EEB) in the previous game. I almost looked to be a new side today. Nevertheless, the Green and Maroon army marched into the Navy defence.
Fardeen Ali Mollah – the Assistor
Even then, it was ATKMB which started on the front foot making regular forays on the Navy goal. The 18th minute witnessed the opener with Deepak Tangri, finding Manvir on the right with a long ball. The ATKMB number 11 squared the ball to Fardeen Ali Mollah, lurking on the edge of the box.
Rodriguez found space on his left and beat goalkeeper Vishnu with a grounded left-footer to the near corner. Just four minutes later, Lenny came close to scoring his second goal of the day with a beautiful long-range curler. Vishnu, though, did well at the moment to send it away.
Later, Kiyan Nassiri’s quick passes with Fardeen resulted in his second assist of the contest. The Navy’s defence was subsequently breached by Kiyan, who finished strong. After Pritam Kotal fluffed his lines and Shreyas VG pounced on it, Navy had an opportunity to pull one back, but the effort was unsuccessful.
ATK Mohun Bagan – 2 (Lenny 18’ Kiyan 28’) Indian Navy – 0
