Mohammedan, Abahani share the spoils; Kings drop points at home

Bashundhara Kings ended their first round of matches in the Bangladesh Premier League om top of the table with a 1-1 draw against Sheikh Russel KC at the Bashundhara Kings Arena after country's traditional rivals Mohammedan SC and Abahani shared the spoils in a 2-2 draw at the Rafique Uddin Bhuiyan Stadium in Mymensingh yesterday.

Rakib Hossain cancelled out a 46th-minute strike from Japanese midfielder Kodai Iida in the 67th minute for 10-man Kings, who ended the first phase with 22 points, five ahead of Mohammedan. Abahani are in this position with 15 points.

The second round matches of the league will resume on March 29 after the last two matches of the ninth round take place today.

In Mymensingh, the country's two most popular outfits faced off just nine days after they had squared off in the Federation Cup encounter in Gopalganj where Mohammedan had showed spirited fightback to come from a goal down to beat Abahani 2-1. Yesterday, Mohammedan were once again on the back foot, and only came out with a point due to a debatable penalty awarded by referee Symoon Hasan in the dying minutes of the high-intensity encounter.

Abahani got off to a sparkling start by taking a second-minute lead when Brazilian forward Bruno Rocha found the top corner of the far post with a perfect free-kick from outside the box close to the left flank.

The early damage helped Mohammedan wake up to mount pressure on Abahani in search of an equaliser, with Uzbek midfielder Mozaffarjon Mozaffarov watching his free-kick go out after hitting the outside of the crosspiece in the 11th minute.

Then Arif Hossain delivered a dangerous low cross in the Abahani box from the right side in the 17th minute but Nigerian forward Emanuel Sunday was too late to make connection.

Abahani also tried to get rid of the pressure in transitions, with Cornelius Stewart delivering a beautiful pass inside the Mohammedan box but Washington Brandao failed to make proper connection before Pappu Hossain rescued Abahani with a diving save off a Mozaffarov drive in the 38th minute.

Mohammedan kept pressing hard and defender Emanuel Tony saw his close-range header on a free-kick from Mozaffarov test Pappu six minutes into the second half.

However, Abahani doubled their lead 10 minutes into the second half when Brandao whipped in a cross from the right flank and Bruno headed it down at near post for Cornelius, who flicked it home from the grip of Mohammedan goalkeeper Sujan Hossain.

Mohammedan, however, bounced back with a goal in the 68th minute when Soulemane Diabate converted from the spot following a tackle-from-behind on Sunday.

Diabate, Mohammedan's inspirational skipper, levelled the margin in the 87th minute from the spot after referee Symoon awarded another penalty to the Black and Whites citing a handball inside the box even though TV footages did not catch any discernable incident of handling-the-ball by any Abahani player. The match was held up for 10 minutes in the face of protests from Abahani, who saw their manager Nazrul Islam given marching order.

Meanwhile in Gopalganj, Sheikh Jamal DC came from behind to beat Rahmatganj MFS 2-1 to stay in fourth position of the 10-team table with 14 points while Rahmatganj were in eighth position with seven points.