Kolkata conquers NE with 10-men
Fikru did that and Podany added another in the business end of the match and that was that. Atletico de Kolkata won the second game on a trot now defeating North East United 2-0.
Atletico de Kolkata thrashed Mumbai FC in their first outing with their free flowing football and fired 3 goals to walk out as winners. The home team, who themselves edged out on a victory with a goal, will be mindful about this fact and will have to make stern efforts to guard their citadel against the aggressive visitors.
15 minutes into the game it was time for the summersault a la Miroslav Klose. Luis Garcia put in a mind boggling overhead ball for Fikru near the face of the goal. Fikru made a terrific run, chests the ball down and smacked it past the goalie for a goal on the run. The goalie was left flat footed there as he had absolutely no chance of saving that one.
Atletico de Kolkata rubbed it in when Jacob Podany collected a neat cross from substitute Sanju Pradhan took his time to wrong foot the rival goalie and then smashed it in the far corner in 92nd minute of the match.
Atletico went into the attack early and Borja was in the thick of things. Borja fancied his chances from a long side as he tried to chip it above keeper Alexandros Tzorvas. But the lanky goalie was alert there. He made another important save as Jofre put in a long ball which was intercepted by Luis Garcia in the box. He set himself and smacked it on target forcing the goalie to make a diving save.
Jofre showed some skills again as he cut in nimbly and pulled the ball back to find space on the right flank. He then put a good cross which needed a fingertip save from the keeper.
36 minutes in the match a brilliant corner by Jofre on the near post saw Ofentse Nato come running in and glance a header. The ball went swiftly but came off the right post. Kondwani Mtonga cleared the ball to evade danger.
The second half saw both the teams drained of their energy. This resulted in frayed tempers. Meanwhile, North East skipper Capdevilla did put the ball into the rival net, but from the off-side position. But the first red card moment of the moment came in the 86th minute of the match when Borja collected the second yellow of the match.
Ricky Herbert made couple of changes early in the second half to stem the rot, but two trigger efforts apart from Durga Boro nothing much happened.
(Reporting by Arindam Basu)
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