Mohun Bagan back on top after Cummings’s late bender
Mohun Bagan tops ISL after a 1-0 win over Chennaiyin FC, with Greg Stewart assisting and Jason Cummings scoring the decisive goal late in the match.
Kolkata: He’s back. Still not 100% but good enough for a cameo that became the scene stealer. Greg Stewart missed two matches with a knee injury on either side of an international break but in two minutes of arriving, he fired a shot that crashed into the framework and provided the match’s only assist.
It still needed a moment of magic to break Chennaiyin FC’s robust resistance and that was provided by Jason Cummings with a left-footer so good that even two goalkeepers may not have not been enough. The 1-0 win helped Mohun Bagan return to the top of the Indian Super League (ISL) standings with their sixth win from nine rounds and their fifth clean sheet in their last six matches.
All night, Irfan Yadwad and Ryan Edwards had done little wrong. Till the 86ht minute that is when Yadwad lost the ball and Edwards was late in getting tight on Cummings. Ashish Rai stole from Yadwad and found Stewart who played it forward for Cummings to unfurl a bender.
Stewart had banged into the horizontal one minute earlier, in the 85th. Manvir Singh then headed into the framework before Stewart again hit the crossbar. Suddenly, a match on slow burn all night had produced a finish that was feverish. Jose Molina has always said he has a squad so good that he need not worry about injuries and suspensions. Their Saturday show was proof.
Owen Coyle was right in pointing out Mohun Bagan’s superiority in terms of quality but the British coach knows how to make it difficult for a heavyweight side. Chennaiyin FC frustrated Mohun Bagan with a middle block that was effective and efficient.
Mohun Bagan were denied the width they crave with Chennaiyin FC’s wide midfielders Yadwad and Farukh Choudhary joining forces with the defence to rein in Liston Colaco and Manvir. Yadwad has played as striker for India with Choudhary as No. 10 but in front of 29,500 at Salt Lake stadium, he put up a stout defensive performance. Be it in the 70th minute when he tracked back to pressure Rai or using his presence to ensure Mohun Bagan do not make much of an early corner-kick.
Retaining the 11 that won comfortably against Jamshedpur FC meant Mohun Bagan ended up playing a double six. Because the inroad Tangri made last week was denied by Lalrinliana Hnamte and Elson Junior. So, Mohun Bagan were stifled in the middle as well.
Content to let Mohun Bagan have the ball, Chennaiyin FC’s attempts at going forward for didn’t go beyond winning free-kicks from areas where Conor Shields could deliver into the box. Having kept Mohun Bagan quiet till the 70th, Coyle unleashed Lukas Brambilla and Daniel Chima Chukwu to try and win more than one point. They didn’t do much but Yadwad managed a late shot that really tested Vishal Kaith.
Colaco too did that in the 37th minute with a solo effort reminiscent of his performance against Jamshedpur FC, this time farther out from goal. Dippendu Biswas, given a rough time by Yadwad, found Dimitri Petratos who relayed the ball to Colaco to wing it on the left. He did before cutting in and firing from range. Nawaz flew to his right and got a left hand to prevent it from going into the top corner. From the 37th to half-time, Mohun Bagan managed to unlock the right side of the Chennaiyin FC defence but the final ball was missing. Till Stewart came along.