After 2 wins, ATK Mohun Bagan a point away from knockouts

Male (Maldives), August 22

ATK Mohun Bagan pumped in three second-half goals in a brilliant comeback to beat Maziya Sports & Recreation of the Maldives 3-1 in their Group D match and move within a point of reaching the AFC Cup knockout stage.

The Kolkata-based Indian Super League team was trailing 0-1 at halftime after Ibrahim Aisham scored for the home side in the 25th minute.

But ATK Mohun Bagan struck in the 48th, 63rd and 77th minutes through Liston Colaco, Roy Krishna and Manvir Singh to emerge victorious on Saturday.

With two wins from two matches, Antonio Habas’ side just need a draw in their last group match on Tuesday against Bangladesh’s Bashundhara Kings (on four points) for a place in the Inter-Zone Semi-final.

Maziya join India’s Bengaluru FC in being eliminated from the competition. Bengaluru FC had played out a 0-0 draw against Bashundhara on Saturday after losing to ATK Mohun Bagan 0-2 in their campaign opener.

Habas said a change in formation saw his side up the tempo in the second half. “We had some difficulties with the opponent, because they scored first. After a change of system, we became consistent,” Habas said.

“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,” he added.

Fiji international Roy Krishna was named the Player of the Match. “We knew that we had the quality and we trusted in the way we played,” said 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 to in the second half and got the goals,” he added. — PTI

Olympian, former coach Hakim ‘saab’ dead

New Delhi: Syed Shahid Jakim, former India footballer and member of the national team that played in the 1960 Rome Olympics, died today at a hospital in Gulbarga, family sources said. Hakim ‘saab’, as he was popularly known, was 82. He had very recently suffered a stroke after which he was admitted to a hospital in Gulbarga. In his more than five-decade association with Indian football, Hakim, a Dronacharya awardee, had been an assistant coach to late PK Banerjee during the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi before also being in charge of the national team during a tournament. At the domestic level, his finest hour as coach came when he guided Mahindra & Mahindra to the Durand Cup title in 1988, beating a formidable East Bengal team. PTI