Ctg Abahani, Mohun Bagan thru’

Chattogram Abahani moved into the semifinals of the Sheikh Kamal International Club Cup as champions of Group A despite a 1-0 defeat against Mohun Bagan in their last group match at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chattogram yesterday.

The host team, who rested six key players from their starting eleven after having all but confirmed their last-four berth with a game in hand, finished with six points alongside Mohun Bagan and Young Elephants.

Mohun Bagan finished second on goal-difference while Young Elephants, who beat TC Sports earlier in the day, missed out on qualification.

Chattogram Abahani coach Maruful Haque, in the post-match press conference, claimed he had the intention of giving complete rest to those six players including skipper Jamal Bhuiyan and striker Chinedu Matthew, but the team received a confusing message from one of the match officials that a defeat would send them out of the competition.

“I wanted to give complete rest to those players as the semifinal match was very near and considering the equation. But a message was relayed to us at around 55 minutes ahead of the game that we would not qualify if we lose. Then I made the substitutions [sending in Jamal, Matthew and Arifur Rahman]. Later we were told the initial message was wrong” the coach said.

“We didn’t play badly, just made a few mistakes and one of those mistakes cost us the game,” Maruful added.

The battle between two clubs from the two parts of Bengal had attracted a full-house crowd at the premier football venue of the port city last night, but the hosts failed to replicate their dominating performance of the last two matches.

However, the hosts kept Mohun Bagan at bay in the first hour as there was hardly any notable scoring chances from either side in the first 45 minutes.

But Mohun Bagan, who needed a victory to qualify, broke the deadlock on the hour-mark when Suhair Vadakkepeedika shrugged off Plane Petar’s arms around him and smashed one home with a powerful diagonal volley.

Both teams had a few half-chances to convert thereafter, but Chattogram failed to raise their game, with Luka Rotkovic failing to score from close range. Mohun Bagan, on the other hand, were overjoyed at having made it to the last four despite an unimpressive start to the tournament.

Defending champions leave empty-handed

Champions of the 2017 edition TC Sports Club finished their campaign without a single point following their 2-1 defeat against Young Elephants in the first match of the day.

Captain Bounphachan Bounkong opened the scoring on 18 minutes and doubled his team’s lead 15 minutes after restart with two clinical efforts. Mohamed Samir reduced the margin for the Maldivian outfit before the Laotians wasted a few chances to increase the winning margin.