Kolkata: Mohun Bagan were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Sporting Club de Goa in the tenth round I-League encounter played here at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday.
The evenly-contested match saw both teams playing a goalless first-half before Mohun Bagan opened the scoring in the 73rd minute through Syed Rahim Nabi, but Sporting Club equalised shortly afterwards when Kalu Ogba converted a spot-kick.
The match started with both teams getting some chances, but there were no clear-cut attempts. While Sporting Club De Goa created their chances through a passing game, Mohun Bagan were more content on playing the long ball, hoping to find Odafa Okolie, their star striker, up front.
For the remainder of the first half it was an even battle, with both teams having their fair share of missed passes as they were missing some key players. Mohun Bagan, missing Jose Barreto, Sunil Chhetri, Hudson Lima and Ashim Biswas, especially failed to impress.
In the second half the frustration started to show as NP Pradeep of Mohun Bagan and Victorino Fernandes of Sporting received yellow cards for bad tackles in the 55th and 61st minute respectively.
Finally the home side broke the deadlock, when Rahim Nabi was pushed up front to support Odafa. The move paid off as Nabi neatly placed a long ball past the goalkeeper in the 73rd minute to score the opening goal.
But the joy was shortlived as Sporting equalised within seven minutes when Victorino crossed the ball into the box, which was handled by Bagan defender Kingshuk and resulted in a spot-kick being awarded. Kalu Ogba stepped up to take the penalty and placed the ball along the ground, sending Bagan keeper Sangaram Mukherjee the wrong way as he went diving to his left in the 80th minute.
The match ended 1-1 and it is to be seen if big-spending Bagan can strike form this season, as they have won only one match of their last four matches in the league. Mohun Bagan now have 20 points, while Sporting Clube have 13.
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