Analysis by Suparno Chakraborty
ATK Mohun Bagan walked out of the Kolkata Derby with bragging rights as they defeated East Bengal FC by 2-0 to grab full points and move up in the Hero Indian Super League table as they sit at 4th in the ladder right now.
As predicted in the preview ATK Mohun Bagan were clear favourites and they did justice to themselves as they dominated the proceedings for most part of the game. The green and maroon brigade went onto attack the red and gold battalion right from the word go. Although East Bengal FC also had a few chances too but those weren’t enough as the red and gold upfront failed to convert from the little amount of chances that came their way.
ATKMB played in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Dimitrios Petratos as False9. Liston and Manveer operated form the wings with Hugo Boumos playing as the attacking midfielder. Kouko operated box to box while Tangri remained as the defensive midfielder in front of the back four that comprised of Kotal and Hamill as the center backs, Rai and Subhasish were the wing backs with Kaith as their last custodian.
EBFC played in a 4-4-2 formation with Kamaljit under the bars. Lalchungnunga and Ivan played at the heart of the defence as center backs as Jerry and Sarthak were the full backs. Kyriacou once again fitted in as the defensive midfielder while Jordan played the role of a holding medio. Suhair and Naorem operated from the wings with Haokip and Cleiton as forwards.
As the game began, ATKMB kicked off the proceedings keeping possession as they committed around seven of their players forward with Hugo, Dimitri, Liston, Manveer and Kouko challenging the EBFC defenders while the wing backs Rai and Subhasish kept on making those overlapping runs down the flanks forcing the EBFC wingers Naorem and Suhair to stay in their own half for most part of the game as they needed to support the full backs Sarthak and Jerry. EBFC relied on counter attacks as Naorem, Suahir, Jordan, Cleiton and Haokip were given the responsibility of the same. But committing only five men forward that too against the likes of Kotal, Hamill, Rai, Subhasish, Tangri and Kouko wasn’t enough to break the green and maroon defence line.
In the first half the game was evenly poised as the EBFC midfielders and defenders maintained shape, although ATKMB created more chances and could have scored but they were kept at bay by the red and gold defenders. During this time Hugo could have scored a solo goal as he latched onto a second ball down the left flank of EBFC from a corner down the EBFC right flank as Ivan and his colleagues were mere ball watchers rather than watching out for Hugo who was lurking around the left side of the EBFC box for the loose ball. Sarthak thwarted the threat as he somehow managed to put his foot onto the ball while Ivan was already grounded by Hugo. Liston, Dimitri, Kouko and Hugo surged continuous threats but Rai was kept at bay by Naorem as he successfully tracked back down the flanks and supported Jerry. In the first half itself EBFC could have been awarded with a penalty as Kotal pushed Cleiton in the ATKMB box. The best move of EBFC came in the first half when Lalchugnnunga switched the game from right flank to left flank as he delivered a pin point long ball to Naorem on left, as the later floated in a perfect center within the box that was headed by Haokip and saved well by Kaith. Haokip should have done better if he could have judged correctly the inswinging floater from Naorem as he wasn’t able to put full upper body strength while heading because he had to lean back in order to meet the delivery.
Both the teams went into the locker rooms with the scoreboard locked at 0-0.
As the second half began ATK Mohun Bagan started toying with the East Bengal FC defence as Hugo wrecked havoc by tearing apart the barriers with his sublime skills and intelligent game play.
Ferrando is smart enough to identify that Sarthak was committing into the final tackle too early in the first half and he asked the green and maroon attackers to target EBFC right flank as Suhair was equally terrible throughout the game both during attacking and defensive transitions. As the ATKMB attackers started giving tremors to the EBFC backline, Kyriacou also felt the heat as he couldn’t cope up with the speed of Hugo and Liston. During this phase Hugo carried on with the ball leaving behind Kyriacou who couldn’t match up with the speed and kept on hovering McHugh and as Hugo unleashed a shot towards Kamaljit who out of utmost dismay conceeded which should have been otherwise a regulation save for any goalkeeper. Once EBFC conceeded they were completely out of the game and they couldn’t script a comeback while Manveer doubled the lead for the mariners as Kamaljit fumbled again. Constantine brought in a few changes in the form of Tuhin, Aniket, Lima, Eliandro and Sauvik but those produced nothing for the red and gold battalion. On the other hand Ferrando brought in Pogba, Kuruniyan, McHugh and Lenny to hold onto the lead and look for opportunities to enhance the lead even further.
For East Bengal FC Jordan, Naorem, Haokip and Lalchungnunga were the key performers.
For ATK Mohun Bagan Hugo, Liston, Kouko, Subhasish and Hamill stealed the show.
ATKMB under Ferrando is yet to reach its peak in terms of form and rhythm and they are supposed to do better from here on. EBFC under Constantine will have to do a lot of hard work in order to script a comeback. To be fair Constantine couldn’t have done much different with the squad he has been given to play with.
To sum up it can be said that ATKMB deservingly walked away with the bragging rights of the Kolkata Derby in front of a strong 62 thousand spectators at the VYBK.
