AFC Cup: ATK Mohun Bagan require attract closing group match to enter knockouts

ATK Mohun Bagan pumped in three second half targets in a superb comeback to beat Maziya Sports & Recreation of the Maldives 3-1 of their Group D match and transfer inside some extent of reaching the AFC Cup knockout stage right here.
The Kolkata-based Indian Super League crew was trailing 0-1 at half time after Ibrahim Aisham had scored for the house facet within the twenty fifth minute.
But ATK Mohun Bagan struck within the forty eighth, 63rd and 77th minutes by Liston Colaco, Roy Krishna and Manvir Singh to emerge victorious on Saturday.
With two wins from two matches, Antonio Habas’ facet simply want a draw of their final group match on Tuesday in opposition to Bashundhara Kings — on 4 factors — of Bangladesh for a spot within the Inter-Zone Semi-final.
Maziya be a part of India’s one other membership Bengaluru FC in being eradicated from the competitors. Bengaluru FC had performed out a 0-0 draw in opposition to Bashundhara on Saturday after dropping to ATK Mohun Bagan 0-2 of their marketing campaign opener.
The dwelling facet opened their account for the marketing campaign after 25 minutes when Cornelius Stewart led a fast counter-attack, embarking on a solo run down the best earlier than crossing for Ibrahim Aisham who swept dwelling Maziya’s opener.
Five minutes later, the Maldives facet have been near including a second similarly with Stewart once more offering the availability down the best, however this time he fed Hussain Nihan contained in the field and the latter squared throughout the mouth of objective for Hamzath Mohamed who fluffed his traces.
Liston Colaco examined the goalkeeper with a well-struck free-kick from 25 yards out as ATK Mohun Bagan chased an equaliser, however Mirzokhid Mamatkhonov was up for the problem and parried away the hassle to maintain Maziya within the lead on the break.
The Indian facet acquired their second half off to a flying begin as halftime substitute Ashutosh Mehta produced an instantaneous impression, whipping a pinpoint cross from the best for Colaco who met it with a diving header into the again of the web to deliver ATK Mohun Bagan stage.
Four minutes after the hour-mark, substitute Hugo Boumous executed a nice through-pass, sending Colaco by on objective, however the latter’s try was saved by the hosts’ Uzbek goalkeeper, however solely so far as the onrushing Roy Krishna who saved his composure to expertly strike on the rebound to present ATK Mohun Bagan the lead for the primary time within the match.
France-born Boumous displayed his artistic skills as soon as extra with 14 minutes to go, feeding Manvir Singh with an beautiful cross, and the ahead made no errors with solely the goalkeeper to beat, drilling it into the underside nook to make it 3-1.
Habas later mentioned a change in formation noticed his facet up the tempo within the second half as three gamers discovered the again of the web.
“We had some difficulties with the opponent, because they scored first. After a change of system, we became consistent and I’m very proud of my players,” Habas mentioned after the match.
“We have six points, and no other team has that. (In this match) we had the possibility to draw, but we didn’t have to think that way, only the possibility for us to try to win, and this will be our idea for the next match.”
Roy Krishna’s total efficiency, moreover the second objective for ATK Mohun Bagan, noticed him being named the Player of the Match and the Fiji worldwide mentioned the crew by no means doubted themselves regardless of Maziya taking the lead.
“We knew that we had the quality, with the best players in our team and we trusted in the way we played,” mentioned Krishna.
“We knew we would get more chances and we just had to be patient. We hurried a lot (in the first half) but we played the way we wanted in the second half and got the goals.”