Kolkata: Mohun Bagan SG defeated Chennaiyin FC 1-0 at Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata. But the scorecard doesn’t tell the struggles that they faced throughout the game against the away side. After this game, Mohun Bagan SG head coach Panagiotis Dilmperis stressed on some key issues regarding Bagan.
11th placed Chennaiyin FC with 52℅ possession, 25 shorts on target absolutely toyed with Bagan midfield and defense. It is to be noted that Miguel, Apuia were absent due to hamstring injury and high fever respectively. Their absence was felt throughout the game as midfield looked a bit clueless where Chennaiyin kept winning individual battles and attacked up front, keeping Vishal Kaith busy throughout. Even Nikola Stojanovic came very much near but his short was blocked in goal post. Brison Fernandes, Irfan too had chances but failed to convert. Bagan kept losing momentum throughout the game.
All these struggles made Panos miss the key duo of Miguel and Apuia. Both didn’t practice last day being unfit but are on road to recovery along with forward Jamie Maclaren who is also dealing with groin issue.
“Surely we missed Miguel and Apuia, for the 4-2-3-1 formation, you need a clear Number 10. The bad thing is Miguel was not in good shape, I’m a fan of Indian players, I was sure that Sahal will come and change the game. We used Deepak Tangri, he was defensive, we want to build some things. If Apuia was available, it’s a different thing, it gives you options to do things from bench. We have to solve our mistakes really quick”.
Despite creating chances on back of Manvir Singh, who ultimately scored the goal with long range assist of Liston Colaco in 85th minute, Samir Zeljkovic, Dejan Drazic coming near and building Balls, they ultimately didn’t succeed and missed opportunities.
In words of Panos, “We’re predictable in the first half”. It was a big factor behind the struggles of Mohun Bagan last night against Chennaiyin FC.
Despite the missed chances, losing individual battles, Panos completely backed Samir Zeljkovic and Dejan Drazic even reminding everyone of their past heroics. Samir and Drazic played key role in IFA Shield 2026 win of Bagan in final against East Bengal. Samir scored the lone goal while Drazic with blood soaked head played brilliantly in midfield and was Man of the match.
Backing the 2 foreigners, Panos said, “Samir gave Mohun Bagan SG the IFA Shield with his amazing performance , he was in Durand Cup and changed many games he played except the final, Drazic also played well”.
One of those experiments that Panos took approach was playing Lallianzuala Chhangte, who is actually a right winger in different positions in left in many games, and it was done yesterday too. Panos stated the tactics behind this to go past Namgyal Bhutia to score goal, which Chhangte came near but couldn’t succeed. However, Liston and Manvir did the same thing during their goal, where Liston went past defender Namgyal Bhutia to send a left footer to Manvir Singh, who chested the Ball past Chennaiyin captain and goalkeeper Md Nawaz to score the winner in 85th minute. Chhangte’s left foot brilliance was one of the major factor behind Panos giving him a new role.
Regarding his tactics of giving new role to Chhangte, Panos said, “We wanted to take advantage behind Bhutia, who’ll be high. If we have a right foot player, we wouldn’t be able to transfer the Ball easy. This is how the goal was created by Liston who did it with left foot. Chhangte has the left foot so that was the approach we were hoping that Bhutia will be high and Chhangte will receive it there. It happened plenty of times. In 1st half, tactically it was right Chhangte is a right winger yes but needs are of games and situation. I think I was right, we created things from there”.
Mohun Bagan will next face Punjab FC on October 31, Panos and his men would focus on that game and “forget this game”.
