Abahani Limited’s desire to win their fourth consecutive professional league title suffered a big blow when they tasted their first defeat of the season by 0-2 in the
hands of their archrivals Mohammedan Sporting Club in the Bangladesh Premier League on Tuesday.
Two first-half goals by Mohammedan’s young midfielders Sohel Rana and Wahed Ahmed secured full points for the black and whites while Abahani failed to create any sure
chances even after their opponents been reduced to 10-man seven minutes from time.
An inform Abahani, who were unbeaten before this match, started strongly, but gradually lost the ground to their hard working opponents and finally fell behind in the
24th minute with Sohel scoring the opener.
Sky blues stopper Shahidul Islam punched away a Shariful Islam cross from the right that went to Sohel who made a near post finish with a low right foot drive.
The goal puzzled the sky blues and as they tried harder to get back in the game, they were taken further back as Mohammedan’s Under-19 star Wahed doubled the lead two
minutes before the breather.
Wahed received a pass from Oladikpikpo Okalawon and dribbled past defender Samad Yusuf before beating the Abahani goalie with a terrific strike from just inside the
penalty area.
Abahani had some space to attack in the second-half as Mohammedan appeared in a defensive 5-3-2 formation instead of their first half’s 4-4-2.
Abahani, however, came close to scoring from a set-piece, but failed to break the Mohammedan back-line.
Sohel received his second yellow card, resulting in a red card, of the match in the 83rd minute that reduced Mohammedan to 10 men with seven minutes still on the
clock, but that did not help the sky blues as they remained goalless.
Despite the fatal defeat Abahani are still leading the league table with 30 points from 13 matches with Muktijoddha Sangsad closely following them with 27 points from
the same number of matches.
The win, on the other hand, took Mohammedan two steps above to the fifth place with 17 points from 12 matches.
-With New Age input
