Bagan lift first title of the season
Mohun Bagan successfully defended their Calcutta Football League title, edging past Chirag United 1-0 at the Salt Lake Stadium on Tuesday. The game was marred by a 24-minute partial blackout and unruly scenes following a controversial penalty.
Overall, play was held up for 29 minutes with Chirag reduced to nine men after action resumed as Denson Devadas and centreback Eduardo Chacon were given marching orders for shoving referee Minangshu Bhattacharya.
At the same time, the referee’s decision to award Bagan the penalty in the 65th minute was harsh, as it appeared that Eduardo had only cleared the ball and not fouled the goal-bound Ryuiji Sueoka, who was inches away from the five-yard circle.
Interestingly, just a minute earlier, Bhattacharya nullified Souvik Chakraborty’s strike off Chidi Edeh’s header that the Chirag defenders failed to clear. He claimed that Chidi had fouled Chirag goalkeeper Sandeep Nandy while going for the header.
After the police intervened to bring the situation under control, Chidi calmly converted the penalty to lead Bagan to their first and only trophy of the season, denying Chirag their maiden CFL title.
Being ahead of Bagan by virtue of a superior goal average, all Chirag needed to lift the trophy was a draw. But to their misfortune, relatively easy chances were squandered in both halves from strikers Ashim Biswas and Josimaar Da Silva.
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