Odafa inspires Mohun Bagan to victory

Mohun Bagan 3 (Odafa 30, 88, Malik 75)

beat

Pune FC 1 (Haokip 79)

I-LEAGUE Media Team

BARASAT: A brace from club captain Odafa Okolie gave Mohun Bagan a much needed 3-1 victory over Pune FC in a round 16 encounter of the Airtel I-League at the Vidyasagar Krirangan in Barasat on Saturday evening.

Odafa put Mohun Bagan in front in the first half while Ram Malik doubled the home team’s advantage in a second half where both sides wasted plenty of opportunities. Thongkhosiem Haokip pulled one back for Pune but Odafa sealed the points by netting his second late on.

The result took Mohun Bagan’s points tally to 18 from 15 matches while Pune remain third with 24 from 14 outings after their fourth defeat of this campaign.

Having failed to win their last two games, Mohun Bagan looked to make a fast start but Pune were more comfortable in possession with Douhou Pierre pulling the strings from midfield.

The Ivorian created openings for both Mustapha Riga and Arata Izumi but neither could test Mohun Bagan custodian Shilton Paul. The hosts were winning a lot of freekicks but not really opening up the Pune backline.

But at the half-hour mark Karim Bencherifa’s side went in front through Odafa. Mohun Bagan kept a move alive following a corner with Christopher Chizoba doing well to find CS Sabeeth inside the box. Sabeeth’s shot was saved by Amrinder Singh but Odafa showed great predatory instincts to score from the rebound.

The goal changed the atmosphere in the ground completely as Mohun Bagan fans were delighted and their team started defending better. The Mariners led 1-0 at the break.

Pune coach Mike Snoei brought on Haokip in place of India international Arata at the start of the second half and his side were nearly level almost immediately after the restart as Calum Angus’ header from an Anthony D’Souza corner was cleared off the line.

It was end-to-end action after that as Odafa went close a couple of times while Pune’s Dutch attacker Riga continued to be wasteful in front of goal. On one occasion when Riga did force a save off Paul, Meyer was guilty of not scoring from the rebound.

Odafa should have killed the game off when he was played clean through on goal by Chizoba but the Mohun Bagan skipper delayed and allowed Pune to clear.

The green-and-maroon brigade finally had their second goal through young Ram Malik who capitalised on an error from Amrinder, who came way out of his goal but missed the ball, by finding the back of an empty net.

Pune kept fighting till the end and Haokip gave them hope by scoring from a rebound after Angus’ freekick had hit the post.

But Mohun Bagan avoided a nervy finish as Odafa outmuscled past a couple of Pune defenders before scoring past Amrinder with the shot taking a small deflection off Angus.