The opening Group A match of the AFC Champions League two at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata will go down as one where the Mohun Bagan Super Giant will have themselves to blame for missing out on several of the goal-scoring opportunities that came their way on Wednesday (September 19). As a result, their fixture against the travelling FC Ravshan Kulob of Tajikistan ended in a goalles draw.
There were a limited number of offensive moves by Mohun Bagan especially in the early minutes of the match. Given that the tournament's regulations did not put an upper limit to the number of foreigners who could feature in the match, coach Jose Molina used this as an opportunity to try three of his overseas players. It meant that it was pretty much a new-look side than the Mohun Bagan that featured in the Indian Super League (ISL) opener.
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Mohun Bagan had their first chance that went down beginning in the 19th minute of the match. Dimitri Petratos was left unmarked and was in a great position to score right on top of the Ravshan's box. However, the Australian forward was caught in two minds which allowed the opposition to block the attempt.
Match Came To Life In Final Quarter
Meanwhile, Ravshan had their chances too. In the 27th minute Ravshan almost found the back of the net as Muhammadjon Rahimov’s shot from close quarters had beaten everyone but goalkeeper Vishal Kaith's desperate save ensured that Mohun Bagan did not concede. In the second half, there wasn't much of a tactical change from both sides as the action revolved around the midfiled and close to no action whatsoever in the attacking third. Ravshan was the team which did manage to produce a few attacking shots but nothing that provided them the lead.
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It was only in the last 15 minutes of the match that Molina introduced his first-team choices and it was exactly in this passage of play that the match came to life. However, the goal still eluded them with the likes of Petratos, Liston Colaco and Jason Cummings all missing scoring opportunities, failing to beat the Ravshan goalkeeper Yevhen Hrytsenko.