I-League: Dempo beat 10-man Mohun Bagan

Margao: Extending their unbeaten home run, Dempo scored an impressive 3-0 win over 10-man Mohun Bagan in the 8th round of the I-League to move to the second place in the points table, here on Wednesday. Dempo, which led 2-0 at half time, scored through Joaquim Abranches (40th), Ryuji Sueoka (44th) and Godwin Franco(70th) at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda.

The win takes it to second place with 19 points from 8 matches, one point behind league leaders East Bengal. While Mohun Bagan remained in the fifth place with 11 points from 8 matches. Dempo, despite injuries to their players, gave a good performance and served the first warning to Bagan when Godwin Franco rattled the crossbar off a free kick in the 4th minute.

Few minutes later, Ryuji Suoeka failed to score as he headed straight into the hands of keeper Shilton Paul off a cross from Clifford Miranda. Dempo were handicapped in the midfield in the absence of Climax Lawerence and Koko Saikobo upfront, and received another setback when Anthony Fernandes had to leave the field due to injury.

In the 40th minute, Sameer Naik played the ball to substitute Romeo Fernandes (who replaced injured Anthony Fernandes). Fernandes worked his way on the right and sent a perfect cross which defender Meharajuddin Wadoo failed to anticipate.

Joaquim Abranches who was in line made no mistake in shooting the ball into the net. The goal spurred Dempo on. They earned a penalty in the 44th minute when defender Nirmal Chettri pulled down Peter Carvalho inside the box. Ryuji Suioka who took the kick converted the penalty to have Dempo leading 2-0 at half time.

Dempo replaced injured keeper Subhasish Roychowdhury with Laxmikant soon after resumption and found themselves in the advantageous position as Bagan were reduced to ten men in the 54th minute when Biswajit Shah was sent off the field for collecting his second yellow card for a dangerous foul on Godwin Franco.

With the pressure increasing on the Kolkata side, their citadel fell again in the 70th minute. Godwin Franco who received a pass from the right on the top of the box essayed a right footer that sailed at the far corner of the net giving no chance to keeper Paul who dived to his left.