Ten-man Abahani thrashed Brothers Union 4-2 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday to restore a three-point lead at the top of the Grameenphone Bangladesh Premier League.
The win took the three-time champions to 33 points 14 matches, three clear of second-placed Muktijoddha Sangsad while Brothers remained in seventh position with 15 points. The first-leg match between the two teams ended 1-1.
Both teams came into this match on the back of shock defeats — Aabahni lost for the first time this season against archrivals Mohammedan while an erratic Brothers Union were humbled by newcomers BJMC. However, this match turned out to be a lopsided affair as they completely dominated the proceedings from the beginning, even after going down to ten men on the half-hour mark.
The goal-fest started in the 16th minute, when Abahani’s nippy winger Zahid Hossain was brought down inside the box by Brothers defender Mohammad Javed and Ghanaian striker Twum Frank converted the resulting penalty kick with a grounder.
Roles reversed as the duel between Zahid and Javed got intense. Zahid, the temperamental winger, fouled Javed once to get a yellow card and then pulled his shirt from back to receive the marching orders in the 30th minute, quite an unnecessary act from the winger who was having an otherwise excellent outing.
However, despite going down to ten men, Abahani continued to play in the same vein of attacking football and doubled the lead in the stoppage time of the first-half. Mohammad Lincoln’s floating cross found an unmarked Frank at the top of the six-yard box who put the ball at the back of the net with a powerful header.
The Sky Blues’ dominance continued into the second-half as they scored a third in the 48th minute, this time another Ghanaian Awudu Ibrahim slotted in an angular shot past a host of defenders into the net, after receiving a cut-back from Brazilian Carlo Da Silva from the corner flag. It was clear lack of communication as Brothers defenders failed to mark Awudu on the top of the box.
Legs got weary at both ends, as the searing heat started to tell on the players fitness, and blunders began to rack up. One of those mistakes gave Brothers a lifeline on the stroke of the hour-mark when Abahani goalkeeper Shahidul Alam Sohel missed the flight of an innocuous long ball, which Nigerian striker Joshua Olalekin obliged by heading in.
But Abahani’s reply was quick as four minutes later veteran midfielder Arman Aziz restored the three goal margin by racing on to a through ball from Awudu before sliding it past the advancing goalie into the net.
Brothers profited from another lapse in the Abahani defence in the 76th minute. Nigerian Kingsley Chigozie, this time, cashed in on a defensive error from Abahani defender Mohammad Sujon to slot it past the goalkeeper to make it 4-2.
Abahani’s Iranian coach was not satisfied with the result as he said they should have won by a bigger margin. “We must have won 4-0. The goals that we conceded were due to defensive blunders. And we missed a couple of chances too,” said Akbar.
His counterpart Syed Nayeemuddin blamed the lack of quality foreigners and lack of experience for the defeat.
-With The Daily Star input
